Indigenous survey questions: what we know and don't know

asked in more than one year asked in one year only never asked *The general-population column mixes full national samples, which include Indigenous respondents at roughly their 5 percent population share, with samples some sources defined as non-Indigenous only; per-item bases are in the explorer. **Youth = the 2019 Youth Reconciliation Barometer, ages 16-29, Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth sampled and reported separately; on-reserve First Nations youth (FNREEES, ages 12-17) are counted in the on-reserve column.

Topic	General population*	Indigenous (national)	Urban Indigenous	On-reserve First Nations	Off-reserve Indigenous	Youth**
Acknowledgment of harm and history	2009–2025 56 items	2021–2024 20 items	2009 1 item	2013–2017 3 items		2019 2 items
Commemoration and symbols	2019–2025 17 items
Education and public knowledge	2018–2025 5 items	2021–2024 1 item	2009 4 items	2013–2017 7 items	2012–2017 6 items	2019 1 item
Government action, spending, accountability	1995–2025 45 items					2019 1 item
Rights, status and treaties	2009–2025 11 items			2013–2016 1 item
Self-government, land and consent	2018–2025 27 items	2021–2024 4 items
Protest and pipelines	1995–2020 13 items
Courts and the justice system	2009–2025 19 items	2019–2020 4 items	2009 9 items
Policing	2014–2024 11 items	2014–2020 4 items
Safety, fear and victimization	2014–2022 2 items	2014–2019 1 item	2009 5 items	2013–2017 7 items	2012 2 items
Discrimination, racism, resentment	2009–2024 39 items	2021–2024 13 items	2009 5 items	2013–2017 4 items	2012 1 item	2019 3 items
Relations and reconciliation climate	2009–2024 34 items	2021–2024 10 items				2019 18 items
Representation and leadership	2020–2024 12 items	2021–2024 9 items
Health, wellbeing, services, living conditions	2018–2025 17 items	2018–2024 7 items	2009 19 items	2015–2017 30 items	2017 7 items
Culture, identity and language	2015–2024 14 items	2019–2024 7 items	2009 3 items	2013–2016 2 items

What we know (six findings)

Big majorities back remembering: curriculum, grave searches, inquiries, days of remembrance draw 70–87 percent. Support falls to a third or less for self-government, land vetoes, or making UNDRIP law, and that drop survives every question format.
The harm is broadly acknowledged (about two-thirds accept “cultural genocide”) but few blame present laws and institutions, and taxpayer-resentment items still draw majorities.
Money splits by concreteness: clean water and housing 83 percent, “spend more” as a budget line under 30.
Question format moves answers as much as a decade of events: the same consent idea polls 18 to 69 depending on how the options are offered.
Support rose everywhere it was measured around 2020–2021 (blockades, Kamloops) and fell back to earlier levels by 2024.
Indigenous and non-Indigenous respondents agree on the diagnosis (harm happened, Indigenous people lack decision-making power) and split widest on whether enough has been done (59 vs 36 percent say governments have not gone far enough, 2025).

What nobody has asked

The Indigenous justice institutions that exist: Gladue courts (in Toronto since 2001), BC First Nations Courts, the Cree court — no awareness or evaluation item, either population, ever.
Mechanisms inside city policing: Indigenous liaison or peacekeeping units, Indigenous recruitment, community patrols, Thunder Bay after two landmark investigations — nothing.
First Nations police services (operating since 1991) and their funding — nothing.
Urban Indigenous residents asked anything at all since 2009; the one urban study was never repeated.
Non-Indigenous publics asked which remedies would improve urban Indigenous safety; the 2009 remedy battery went only to the Indigenous sample.
Inuit-specific opinion (rarely publishable even in official surveys) and Métis-specific items beyond breakdowns.
Reparations or compensation amounts; UNDRIP before 2025 (awareness first measured then); any repeated panel of the same respondents.

Built 2026-08-04 from the Indigenous Survey Questions catalogue (465 items, 1995–2025, 12 organizations). A filled cell shows the span of years and the number of catalogued questions putting that topic to that population; an empty cell means no public poll we located ever did. Coverage reflects the public polling record as catalogued; small academic or internal studies may exist outside it. Global Justice Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto · Ron Levi. Compiled and analyzed with Claude Code (Anthropic).

Public opinion polling on Indigenous issues in Canada: what we know and don't know

What we know (six findings)

What nobody has asked