What these 10 graphics say about Black people on the Prairies

This story is part of the Black on the Prairies project, a collection of articles, personal essays, images and more, exploring the past, present and future of Black life in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Enter the Black On The Prairies project here.

Nearly 175,000 people identified as Black on the Prairies during Canada's 2016 census. 

Like all data, this figure may not say much on its own. It is limited to the number of respondents who specifically identified as "Black." Also, a lot could have changed in the five years since the last census was conducted.

However, when put in context, a closer look at the statistics reveals stories about a rapidly growing Black population with deep roots in the region and branches stretching across the Black diaspora. 

Below are 10 graphics that illustrate where Black people on the Prairies live, how long they've been here, where they were born, the languages they speak and the religions they practice.

In 2016, more than 1.2 million people in Canada identified as Black. This means that, with a Black population of about 175,000, the Prairie provinces  were home to 14.6 per cent of the country's Black population. 

The vast majority (129,390) were in Alberta, followed by Manitoba (30,340) and Saskatchewan (14,925).

While the Prairies trail Ontario and Quebec in overall size of Black population, the region tops the country in terms of the Black population growth rate for the period of 1996 to 2016. 

The growth rate has increased from census to census, and is mainly attributed to more recent waves of immigration from African countries, according to Statistics Canada. 

Alberta's Black population, in particular, has been growing exponentially. In 1996, the province's Black population stood at slightly less than 25,000. By 2016, the Black population had grown fivefold to nearly 130,000.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan saw their Black populations triple from 1996 to 2016. They have the country's third and fourth highest Black population growth rates, respectively, ranking lower than only Alberta and the Territories.

About two-thirds of Black people on the Prairies are first generation, with many arriving from the African continent, but Black presence on the Prairies is believed to stretch back as far as the 18th century and can be characterized by four major waves of migration, according to Karina Vernon, an associate professor of English at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

"The first wave is that period of Black fur trading that happened in the late 1800s and early 1900s," said Vernon, who also edited the Black Prairie Archives anthology.

That was followed by a second, more significant, wave of Black migration from 1905 to 1911, when homesteaders from Oklahoma, Texas and other Southern states made the trip north to establish settlements in Saskatchewan and Alberta.