In 2021, 53.3 percent of the total population in Canada were Christian, 4.9 percent were Muslim, but almost more than a third are not religious at all – with the rest stating they adhere to Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, the Jewish faith, and other Christian denominations. Canada’s religious pluralismCanada is not a very religious country in general. Canadians adhere to a wide variety of beliefs and faiths, with the majority following Christianity, followed by those who do not believe in any deity or religion at all. As with many Western countries, the younger generations are less inclined to identify with faith, and Christianity in particular is not as popular as it is among the older generations. Alternative worship for the younger generations?Canadian teenagers are no less enthusiastic about religion than their parents, and they are just as grounded in their faith as the older generations. They are, however, also just as indecisive when it comes to whether they would call themselves religious or not. Interestingly, they seem much more interested in traditional aboriginal spirituality than in the Judeo-Christian model. They also seem quite interested in another alternative to Christianity: Buddhism is quite popular among the younger generations. Whether this signifies a general trend away from Christianity and towards religious alternatives remains to be seen.

There were over one million registered Indians in Canada as of December 2020. The region with the largest Indian population was Ontario, with 222 thousand, followed by Manitoba, which counted 164 thousand Indians. The regions with the smallest Indian populations were Yukon, and Northwest Territories.

In 2020, there were 1,021,356 registered Indians in Canada. Between 2000 and 2020, the number of registered Indians in Canada experienced an increase, going from some 670 thousand to over one million.

Registered Indians Registered Indians in Canada are all First Nations people who are, as the name suggests, registered as an officially recognized Indian by the Canadian government. No Inuit or Métis is a Registered Indian under Canadian law, leaving only certain First Nations peoples as qualifiers. The word “Indian” is a legal term in this case and has otherwise fallen out of favor. It has been replaced by First Nations, a term used to describe all Canadian aboriginal people who are neither Métis nor Inuit.

Registered Indian status affords benefits and rights not granted to non-Registered Indians including access to reserves and self-governance within them, exemption of federal and provincial taxes to those living on reserve, and postsecondary education financial assistance. The Indian Act of 1951 established the current Indian Register and was revised in 1985 to include people that had been wrongly excluded by the original law.

The number of Registered Indians has grown significantly since 2000 and currently the largest population resides in Ontario, which also has the largest overall population of aboriginal peoples in Canada. British Columbia is home to the largest number of Indian bands, at 199 in 2020.

Indians departing to the north American country of Canada accounted for over 779 thousand in 2022. A linear rise in the number of Indians traveling to Canada was seen over the years from 2009 till 2019.

Sikhism is a religion that originated on the Indian subcontinent during the fifteenth century. Sikhs follow the teachings of 'gurus', who descend from the first guru Guru Naruk who established the faith. Followers of Sikhism are monotheists, believing in only one god, and other core beliefs include the need to meditate, the importance of community and communal living, and the need to serve humanity selflessly (or 'seva'). Sikhism and the British Empire In total, there are around 26 million Sikhs worldwide, and over 24 million of these live in India. Outside of India, the largest Sikh populations are mostly found in former territories of the British Empire - the UK and Canada both have Sikh populations of over half a million people. Migration from India to other parts of the British Empire was high in the 19th century, due to the labor demands of relatively newer colonies, as well as those where slavery had been abolished. These countries also remain popular destinations for Sikh migrants today, as many are highly trained and English-speaking. Other regions with significant Sikh populations Italy also has a sizeable Sikh population, as many migrated there after serving there in the British Army during WWI, and they are now heavily represented in Italy's dairy industry. The Sikh population of Saudi Arabia is also reflective of the fact that the largest Indian diaspora in the world can now be found in the Middle East - this is due to the labor demands of the fossil fuel industries and their associated secondary industries, although a large share of Indians in this part of the world are there on a temporary basis.