It’s a matter of education and wealth … the more education a population has, the more likely they will have a bit of wealth and once they have a little bit of both, they tend to want fewer children.
I should know because I am full blooded Indigenous in northern Ontario born in the 70s from parents who were traditional, born in the wilderness and had a terrible education in residential schools and they ended up having seven children. Out of all of us everyone had five or six kids except me and my wife and now there is an army of cousins in my family. In my own generation, dad had six siblings, mom had seven and they all had children … which meant I had a giant community of cousins, we used to roam around our community like a little gang and we all knew each other, our parents knew us and we all knew them … the adults all treated us like their children and we looked up to them like our parents or older siblings. There were good and bad things about all that.
What I do notice is the number of children dwindling as the generations grow. My parents generation averaged about seven or eight children, my generation averaged about five or six and the generation after me is averaging about three or four. And that all falls in line with how much education and wealth people have. The more educated a couple becomes, they tend to leave the community to live somewhere else, get a job, make a bit of money, get more schooling and have fewer children. Those that didn’t do well in school ended up staying in the community, have less wealth and tended to have more children.
Native Canada is on average about 20 to 30 years behind the average demographics of the rest of Canada.
It’s a matter of education and wealth … the more education a population has, the more likely they will have a bit of wealth and once they have a little bit of both, they tend to want fewer children.
I should know because I am full blooded Indigenous in northern Ontario born in the 70s from parents who were traditional, born in the wilderness and had a terrible education in residential schools and they ended up having seven children. Out of all of us everyone had five or six kids except me and my wife and now there is an army of cousins in my family. In my own generation, dad had six siblings, mom had seven and they all had children … which meant I had a giant community of cousins, we used to roam around our community like a little gang and we all knew each other, our parents knew us and we all knew them … the adults all treated us like their children and we looked up to them like our parents or older siblings. There were good and bad things about all that.
What I do notice is the number of children dwindling as the generations grow. My parents generation averaged about seven or eight children, my generation averaged about five or six and the generation after me is averaging about three or four. And that all falls in line with how much education and wealth people have. The more educated a couple becomes, they tend to leave the community to live somewhere else, get a job, make a bit of money, get more schooling and have fewer children. Those that didn’t do well in school ended up staying in the community, have less wealth and tended to have more children.
Native Canada is on average about 20 to 30 years behind the average demographics of the rest of Canada.