Canada is the sixth most developed country in the world according to the un's human development index if first nations were being measured using the same data they would be 63rd lower than Russia and Libya First Nations are about 61% of Canada's Aboriginal population which includes Inuit and mateti that's just over 900,000 people 60% of First Nations live off Reserve in cities and towns across Canada the remaining 360 th000 live on reserve there are more than 2,300 reserves whose populations range from a couple hundred people to more than 10,000 First Nations communities face multiple crises when
it comes to Education First Nations people have a significantly higher dropout rate than other Canadians six out of 10 First Nations living on reserve were high school dropouts three out of 10 were dropouts for First Nations living off Reserve compare that to one out of 10 for other Canadians on Reserve more than half of First Nations need a new school while over 70% of the schools need major repairs another startling statistic a First Nation youth living on reserve is more likely to end up in jail than to graduate high school now let's take a look
at income based on data from the 2006 census 50% of status first nation's children lived in poverty compared to 177% for other Canadian kids the median income for a first nation's person was little over 199 18,000 compared to over 33,000 for other Canadians finally Health the average life expectancy for First Nations men is 69 years 9 years less than average for other Canadians first nation's women live 77 years or 5 years less than average the infant mortality rate for First Nations is 1 and a half times higher than for average Canadians compared to Canadian youth
the suicide rate is 5 to six times higher among First Nations youth when when it comes to diabetes First Nations people aged 45 and over had nearly twice the rate compared with other Canadians how can we narrow this deep divide between First Nations and Canadians we've asked a variety of people to offer their best single idea to read them visit our series rich country poor Nations
