II.

People

In 1951 Winnipeg was Canada’s fourth largest city. Despite steady growth, it had slipped to seventh place by 1981. In 1981 the city proper had a population of 564,473, while the metropolitan area had a population of 592,061; in 2001 the city had a population of 619,544, and the metropolitan area had a population of 690,100. The metropolitan area contained almost 60 percent of Manitoba’s entire population.

Winnipeg was formed from both English- and French-speaking communities. The southwest district, along the Assiniboine, was largely English-speaking. This is where local merchants and other civic leaders lived, and many of their grand houses still remain. Across the Red River, the former town of Saint Boniface—now part of Winnipeg—was French-speaking and still has a large French-speaking community. Eastern European immigrants were concentrated in the city's North End, north of the main railways; indigenous people are found mostly in that area today.

People of British origin form Winnipeg’s largest ethnic group (24 percent), although immigrants from other parts of Europe and, recently, Asia give the city a cosmopolitan character. The other principal ethnic groups are Ukrainians (7 percent), Germans (7 percent), French (5 percent), Filipinos (3 percent), Poles (2 percent), Jews (2 percent), and Chinese (2 percent). Winnipeg also has more than 20,000 indigenous people, more than any other Canadian city.