Each dot is a published survey share on a 0–100 axis. Unlike the justice chart, these are reported experiences and conditions, not opinions: what respondents said about their own health, distress, substance use, food security, housing, care, and, following the FNIGC's holistic wellness framing, belonging, culture and connection. Sources span different instruments and years (2009 to 2024), so read rows as levels from named studies, not as one comparable series. Hover any row for source and base.
Part of the Indigenous Survey Questions Explorer, a catalogue we compiled at the Global Justice Lab (Ron Levi, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto): all 465 questions Canadian pollsters have asked about Indigenous issues since 1995, with response data and sources for every item. Browse the full catalogue · justice institutions in one chart · what has and hasn't been asked · the attitude space (CES 2021 MCA).
Reported experiences from different instruments, modes, bases and years; rows are not comparable to one another as a series. RHS Phase 3 (FNIGC) covers on-reserve and northern First Nations, 2015-16; UAPS (Environics) covered urban Indigenous adults once, in 2009; the CHS homelessness figures (2018) describe household housing-decision-makers off reserve; the CADS national alcohol estimate uses a different mode and year than the RHS figure beside it. The 2017 off-reserve figures come from the APS 2017 PUMF, whose data dictionary publishes the weighted distributions (verified by our computation); the GSS and CHS identity figures are our own computations from public PUMFs, labelled as such in their entries. The barrier row is multi-select among those needing care. Preventive health in the narrow sense (screening, immunization) appears nowhere in the public record we catalogued; the addiction-programs item is the nearest thing. Verbatim wordings and catalogue IDs are in the table below; every item's full entry, results and source URL are in the explorer. Built 2026-08-04 from the Indigenous Survey Questions catalogue · Global Justice Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto · Ron Levi · compiled and analyzed with Claude Code (Anthropic).
| Band | Item (chart label) | Catalogue ID | Shares | Full question as asked (verbatim from the catalogue) | Source and base |
| Self-rated health and wellbeing (percent reporting) | Rate their own health excellent or very good | RHS-001 | First Nations on-reserve 37.8%; Urban Indigenous 45%; Off-reserve Indigenous 47.7% | In general, would you say that your health is...? | RHS Phase 3 (FNIGC, 2015-16), on-reserve First Nations adults: 37.8% (youth 59.9%). UAPS 2009 urban Indigenous adults: 45%. APS 2017 PUMF (off-reserve First Nations, Metis and Inuit 15+): 47.7%, published in the PUMF data dictionary and verified by us. Different instruments and years; all use the standard self-rated item. |
| Self-rated health and wellbeing (percent reporting) | Rate their own mental health excellent or very good | RHS-002 | First Nations on-reserve 50.5%; Off-reserve Indigenous 51% | In general, would you say your mental health is...? | RHS Phase 3 adults: 50.5% excellent or very good (youth 55.5%). APS 2017 PUMF, off-reserve: 51.0% (dictionary-published, verified by us). |
| Self-rated health and wellbeing (percent reporting) | Happy with their quality of life (very or somewhat) | UAPS-034 | Urban Indigenous 94% | Overall, are you very, somewhat, not very, or not at all happy with your life? | UAPS 2009, urban Indigenous adults, weighted n=2,589: very happy 58% / somewhat 36%. |
| Self-rated health and wellbeing (percent reporting) | Feel in balance physically most or all of the time | RHS-018 | First Nations on-reserve 68.9% | How often do you feel in balance physically? [Also asked separately: emotionally, mentally, spiritually] | RHS Phase 3 adults: physically 68.9%; emotionally 68.1%, mentally 69.8%, spiritually 68.1% on the parallel items. |
| Distress and suicide (percent reporting) | Moderate or severe psychological distress (K10) | RHS-023 | First Nations on-reserve 17.4% | In the past month, how often did you feel tired out for no good reason? | RHS Phase 3 adults, composite K10 categories: likely well 66.1% / mild 16.5% / moderate 9.4% / severe 8.0% (moderate + severe = 17.4%). |
| Distress and suicide (percent reporting) | Felt they needed to talk to someone about their mental health, past year | RHS-030 | First Nations on-reserve 26.1% | In the past 12 months, did you feel like you needed to see or talk on the telephone to anyone about your emotional or mental health? | RHS Phase 3 adults: 26.1% felt a need to see or talk to someone about their emotional or mental health. |
| Distress and suicide (percent reporting) | Ever seriously considered suicide | RHS-032 | First Nations on-reserve 16.1% | Have you ever seriously considered suicide? | RHS Phase 3 adults: 16.1% (down from 22.0% in Phase 2); women 18.7% vs men 13.7%; youth 16.0%. |
| Distress and suicide (percent reporting) | Lifetime suicidal thoughts | APS-003 | Off-reserve Indigenous (Indigenous) 20%; Non-Indigenous only (non-Ind) 12% | During the past 12 months, did you seriously contemplate suicide? | APS 2012 (StatCan), off-reserve Indigenous adults: 20% (off-reserve First Nations 21, Metis 18, Inuit 22) vs 12% of non-Aboriginal adults in the provinces; past-year 5%. |
| Distress and suicide (percent reporting) | Ever attempted suicide | APS-003 | First Nations on-reserve 11.2% | During the past 12 months, did you seriously contemplate suicide? | RHS Phase 3 adults: 11.2% (Phase 2: 13.1%); women 14.3% vs men 8.2%; youth 10.3%, up from 5.9% in Phase 2. |
| Distress and suicide (percent reporting) | Most days are quite a bit or extremely stressful | RHS-033 | First Nations on-reserve 12.9% | Have you ever attempted suicide? | RHS Phase 3 adults: not at all stressful 16.2% / not very or a bit 71.0% / quite a bit or extremely 12.9%. |
| Distress and suicide (percent reporting) | Ever seriously considered suicide (off-reserve) | RHS-029 | Off-reserve Indigenous 17.7% | Thinking about the amount of stress in your life, are most days...? | APS 2017 PUMF (DV DSUICIDE), off-reserve First Nations, Metis and Inuit 15+: ever 17.7% (5.2% in the past 12 months); published in the PUMF data dictionary, verified by us. |
| Substance use (percent reporting) | Drank alcohol in the past 12 months | RHS-010 | First Nations on-reserve 57.4%; National sample 79% | During the past 12 months, have you had a drink of beer, wine, liquor or any other alcoholic beverage? | RHS Phase 3, on-reserve First Nations adults: 57.4% (abstention far higher than the general population). CADS/CSUS 2023 (Health Canada) national estimate: 79% [CADS-003]. Different instruments, modes and years; read as levels, not one trend. |
| Substance use (percent reporting) | Used cannabis daily or almost daily, past year | RHS-014 | First Nations on-reserve 12.1% | Have you had any of the following substances in the past 12 months? [Cannabis; Cocaine; Amphetamines; Methamphetamine; Ecstasy; Hallucinogens; Inhalants; Heroin; Salvia; Other] | RHS Phase 3 adults: no use 69.7% / once or twice 11.2% / monthly 2.4% / weekly 4.6% / daily or almost daily 12.1%. |
| Food security and housing hardship (percent reporting) | Household moderately or severely food insecure | RHS-007 | First Nations on-reserve 50.8% | 'The food that we bought just didn't last and we didn't have the money to get more.' Was that statement often, sometimes or never true for your household in the past 12 months? | RHS Phase 3: food secure 49.2% / moderately insecure 37.7% / severely insecure 13.1%. For comparison, national household food insecurity in the mid-2010s ran near 12% (CCHS-based, outside this catalogue). |
| Food security and housing hardship (percent reporting) | Household income not enough to meet needs, past year | APS-005 | Off-reserve Indigenous 24.2% | Overall, in the past 12 months, was your household income enough to meet your household's needs for transportation, housing, food, clothing, and other necessary expenses? | APS 2017 PUMF, off-reserve: more than enough 21.6% / enough 53.8% / not enough 24.2% (dictionary-published, verified by us). |
| Food security and housing hardship (percent reporting) | Skipped or delayed a mortgage or rent payment, past year | CHS-003 | Off-reserve Indigenous (Indig. hh) 9%; Non-Indigenous only (non-Ind hh) 5% | Has your household ever skipped or delayed a mortgage or rent payment? | CHS 2018 PUMF, computed by us (no published by-identity figure): households with an Indigenous member 9.0% vs 5.0% without (all households 5.3%, matching the published figure). Household reference-person reports; StatCan cautions the CHS does not aim to enumerate the Indigenous population; on-reserve excluded. |
| Food security and housing hardship (percent reporting) | Ever experienced unsheltered homelessness | CHS-001 | Off-reserve Indigenous (FN) 11.7%; Off-reserve Indigenous (Inuit) 10.3%; Off-reserve Indigenous (Métis) 6.3%; Non-Indigenous only (non-Ind) 2.3% | Have you ever been homeless, that is, having to live in a homeless shelter, on the street or in parks, in a makeshift shelter or in an abandoned building? | CHS 2018 (StatCan, household housing-decision-makers; on-reserve excluded): ever lived in a shelter, on the street or in an abandoned building. Off-reserve First Nations 11.7% / Inuit 10.3% / Metis 6.3% / non-Indigenous 2.3%. |
| Food security and housing hardship (percent reporting) | Ever experienced hidden homelessness | CHS-002 | Off-reserve Indigenous (Métis) 30.9%; Off-reserve Indigenous (FN) 28.9%; Off-reserve Indigenous (Inuit) 21.5%; Non-Indigenous only (non-Ind) 14.2% | Have you ever had to temporarily live with family or friends, or anywhere else because you had nowhere else to live? | CHS 2018: ever had to live temporarily with family or friends having nowhere else to go. Metis 30.9% / off-reserve First Nations 28.9% / Inuit 21.5% / non-Indigenous 14.2%. |
| Care access, quality and barriers | Required health care but did not receive all care needed, past year | RHS-005 | First Nations on-reserve 9.6% | During the past 12 months, did you require any health care (e.g., from a doctor, nurse, or other health professional)? | RHS Phase 3 adults: did not require care 33.9% / required and received all needed 56.5% / required but did not receive all needed 9.6%. |
| Care access, quality and barriers | Rate local health services excellent | RHS-003 | First Nations on-reserve 11.1% | Overall, how would you rate the quality of the health care services that are available in your community? | RHS Phase 3 adults: 11.1% overall; urban communities 14.3%, rural 10.5%, remote or special-access 5.0%. The remoteness gradient is the finding. |
| Care access, quality and barriers | Barrier to care: waiting list too long (among those needing care) | RHS-006 | First Nations on-reserve 27% | During the past 12 months, have you experienced any of the following barriers to receiving health care? [Items include: Doctor or nurse not available in my area; Unable to arrange transportation; Difficulty in getting traditional care; Could not afford direct cost; Felt service was not culturally appropriate; Waiting list too long] | RHS Phase 3, multi-response barrier battery among adults who required care: waiting list 27.0%; doctor or nurse not available in the area 22.6%. Multi-select shares, base excludes those not needing care. |
| Care access, quality and barriers | Health care experience generally positive (among users) | UAPS-014 | Urban Indigenous 82% | Was your experience with the health care system generally positive or generally negative? | UAPS 2009, urban Indigenous adults who had used the health care system (weighted n=2,472): generally positive 82% / negative 15%. |
| Care access, quality and barriers | Used traditional medicine in the past year | RHS-004 | First Nations on-reserve 35.1% | In the past 12 months, did you use traditional medicine? [Traditional medicine can include herbal remedies, spiritual therapies, assistance from healers, or other practices indigenous to your culture.] | RHS Phase 3 adults: 35.1%; use rises with formal education (27.2% below high school, higher among university graduates). |
| Care access, quality and barriers | Easy to access traditional healing practices | UAPS-024 | Urban Indigenous 59% | How easy or difficult is it for you to access traditional healing practices, such as natural medicines, healing circles and other ceremonies, and the counsel of elders? | UAPS 2009, urban Indigenous adults: very easy 30% / somewhat easy 29% (easy 59%); 45% called access to traditional healing equally important as mainstream care, 27% more important. |
| Care access, quality and barriers | Use or rely on Aboriginal services in their city (often or occasionally) | UAPS-008 | Urban Indigenous 54% | How often do you use or rely on Aboriginal services or organizations in [CITY]? | UAPS 2009, urban Indigenous adults: often 28% + occasionally 26% = 54%; rarely 22%, never 23%. The fielded neighbour of the never-fielded services-satisfaction wording. |
| Care access, quality and barriers | Aboriginal-specific addiction programs are very important | UAPS-029 | Urban Indigenous 89% | How important do you think it is that Aboriginal addiction programs exist in addition to non-Aboriginal ones? | UAPS 2009, urban Indigenous adults: very important 89% / somewhat 7%. The closest thing to a preventive-health opinion item in the whole record. |
| Care access, quality and barriers | Talked to someone about emotions, mental health or substance use, past year | APS-006 | Off-reserve Indigenous 22.4% | In the past 12 months, have you seen or talked on the telephone to anyone about problems with your emotions, mental health or use of alcohol or drugs? | APS 2017 PUMF (CMH_05), off-reserve: yes 22.4% (dictionary-published, verified by us). Compare the on-reserve RHS felt-need figure above (26.1%): different wordings. |
| Care access, quality and barriers | Confident their family can access needed health care | RR-009 | National sample 54% | Thinking now about today, how confident are you that you and your family could get the mental health counselling you might need? | Race Relations in Canada 2024 (Environics/CRRF), full national sample: very confident 17% + somewhat 37% = 54%; essentially unchanged from 2021. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Strong sense of belonging to their local community (adults, by age) | RHS-017 | First Nations on-reserve 76.4%; First Nations on-reserve 79.9%; First Nations on-reserve 84.8% | How would you describe your sense of belonging to your local community? Would you say it is...? | RHS Phase 3: very or somewhat strong sense of belonging, published by age group only (no pooled adult figure); youth 12-14 78.6%, 15-17 75.1%. Belonging rises with age. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Proud of their Aboriginal identity (very or somewhat) | UAPS-035 | Urban Indigenous 88% | Would you say you are very, somewhat, not very, or not at all proud to be Aboriginal? | UAPS 2009, urban Indigenous adults: very proud 70% / somewhat 18%. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Say the city they live in is home | UAPS-002 | Urban Indigenous 87% | Where is home for you? Is it [CITY], the place your parents and grandparents are from, or somewhere else? | UAPS 2009, urban Indigenous adults: [CITY] is home 87% / parents' or grandparents' community 7% / nowhere feels like home 1%. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Never downplay or hide their Aboriginal identity | UAPS-031 | Urban Indigenous 79% | How often do you downplay or even hide your Aboriginal identity? | UAPS 2009, urban Indigenous adults: never 79% / rarely 10% / occasionally 7% / often 2%. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Happy at school (on-reserve First Nations youth) | FNREEES-007 | First Nations on-reserve (youth) 82.6% | Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree: Overall, I am happy at school. | FNREEES 2013-15 (FNIGC), on-reserve/northern First Nations youth 12-17: agreed or strongly agreed they were happy at school 82.6%; 74.8% agreed most fellow students enjoyed being at school. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Very important to be able to understand a First Nations language (youth) | FNREEES-016 | First Nations on-reserve (youth) 53.1% | How important is it to you that you learn a First Nations language? | FNREEES 2013-15, on-reserve/northern First Nations youth: 53.1% said understanding a First Nations language is very important (published as importance of language abilities). |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Deep sense of belonging to their own Indigenous group (agree) | APS-007 | Off-reserve Indigenous 56.6% | How would you describe your sense of belonging to your local community? | APS 2017 PUMF (SB_20P), off-reserve: strongly agree 19.6% + agree 37.0% = 56.6%; dictionary-published, verified by us. DIFFERENT WORDING from the catalogued local-community belonging item, which is not on the PUMF. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Community they belong to is mostly Aboriginal or equally mixed | UAPS-042 | Urban Indigenous 60% | Do you feel that the community you belong to is...? | UAPS 2009 (item B2, added to the catalogue 2026-08-05 as the fielded neighbour of the never-fielded belonging-strength wording): mostly Aboriginal 24% + equally Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal 36% = 60%; mostly non-Aboriginal 28%. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Saving money for the child's postsecondary education (among those asked) | APS12-008 | Off-reserve Indigenous 54.9% | Are you, or anyone else, saving any money for [child's] postsecondary education? | APS 2012 PUMF (DV dsavmon, dictionary-published, verified by us): yes 54.9% of those in the narrow universe who answered (respondents under 45 attending school who hope to go beyond high school; base-inclusive yes 12.9 / no 10.6 / valid skip 75.9). The fielded neighbour of the never-fielded how-far-hopes item. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Bullying is a problem at my school (off-reserve First Nations students) | APS12-004 | Off-reserve Indigenous 37% | Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree: Bullying is a problem at [child's] school. | APS 2012 master data, published in Arim, Bougie and Kohen 2020 (Aboriginal Policy Studies 8(2)): 37% of off-reserve First Nations high-school students (15-18, self-completed, N=739) perceived bullying as a problem; 97% nonetheless felt safe at school and 93% happy. Youth self-reports; the catalogued parent-reported version remains unpublished. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Ever taught an Aboriginal language in classes at school | APS12-001 | Off-reserve Indigenous 21.8% | Has [child] ever been taught an Aboriginal language in classes at school? | APS 2012 PUMF (DV dablang; published in the PUMF codebook, verified by us): yes 21.8% of those in the universe who answered (base-inclusive: yes 14.4 / no 51.8 / valid skip 33.3). Universe: under-45s attending elementary or high school or who left or completed it, child respondents by proxy. |
| Belonging, culture and connection (percent reporting) | Concerned about losing their cultural identity | UAPS-036 | Urban Indigenous 37% | I am concerned about losing my cultural identity. | UAPS 2009, urban Indigenous adults: totally agree 17% + agree somewhat 21% = 37%; totally disagree 39%. |
| How the general public sees the conditions | Reserve conditions are worse than conditions off-reserve (net) | ARI-061 | National sample 68% | How would you compare conditions on reserves versus off-reserve in your province? | Angus Reid, Mar 2018, full national sample: somewhat worse 40% + much worse 28% = net worse 68%. |
| How the general public sees the conditions | See a large or moderate gap in living standards | COT-003 | Non-Indigenous only 75% | From what you know or have heard, would you say there is a large gap, a moderate gap, a small gap, or no gap at all in the standard of living between Indigenous Peoples and other Canadians generally? | COT 2019 (Environics), non-Indigenous respondents, weighted n=5,406: large gap 43% + moderate 32% = 75%. |
| Never published | “How strongly do you feel you belong to the Aboriginal community in your city?” (urban Indigenous) | UAPS-030 | N/A | How strongly do you feel you belong to the Aboriginal community in [CITY]? | Never fielded (not on the questionnaire, re-checked 2026-08-05). The fielded community-composition item is charted in the band above. |
| Never published | “How satisfied are you with the Aboriginal-specific services in your city?” (urban Indigenous) | UAPS-040 | N/A | How satisfied are you overall with the Aboriginal-specific services available in [CITY]? | Never fielded (no satisfaction item on the questionnaire, re-checked 2026-08-05). The fielded service-use item is charted in the access band above. |
| Never published | “How far do you hope your child will go in school?” (off-reserve, parent-reported) | APS12-006 | N/A | How far do you hope that [child] will go in school? | On Statistics Canada's master file only (search trail: the 2013 education report, fact sheets and 2015 data-tables release carry no topline). Obtainable via an RDC application or custom tabulation; the fielded saving-for-postsecondary neighbour is charted above. |
Catalogue IDs match the explorer. Click a cell on the evidence map to browse any topic's items.