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New Canadian census data reveals the term “visible minority” has become virtually meaningless across Metro Vancouver, where whites have become the minority by a slight degree.

The region’s five largest municipalities now have significantly fewer whites than people of colour, which means Caucasians are a “visible minority” in Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam and the city of Vancouver.

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The 2016 Canadian census data on ethnicity and immigration, released Wednesday, also shows the foreign-born population of Metro Vancouver has risen to 44 per cent, led by people from China, India and the Philippines.

The fastest-growing cohort of foreign-born residents in Canada, meanwhile, is made up of international students and temporary foreign workers, who now comprise more than 77,000 of Metro Vancouver’s population of 2.4 million, according to the census.

Across all of Canada the foreign-born population hit 22 per cent in 2016. That’s the highest proportion of foreign-born residents in Canada since 1921, when most immigrants came from Europe. Now 62 per cent of immigrants hail from Asia.