While the shift in the cultural mosaic in Hamilton will be dramatic, it lags far behind many other large cities when it comes to diversity.

In two of Canada's major cities, so-called minorities will actually be the majority. More than three-quarters of all visible minorities in Canada will live in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, driving the national average to 31 per cent.

A full 63 per cent of Toronto's population will be non-white in 2031, according to a Statistics Canada report released yesterday. Vancouver will come in at 59 per cent, Calgary at 38 per cent, Ottawa 36 per cent and Montreal at 31 per cent.

Closer to home, it's projected 10 per cent of Brantford's population will be from a visible minority, along with 25 per cent in Guelph, 28 per cent in Kitchener and 14 per cent in St. Catharines-Niagara.

In 1981, there were about one million Canadians -- 5 per cent of the population -- who identified themselves as visible minorities. The projection for 2031 is more than double the 5.3 million visible minorities counted in the 2006 census.

As the upward trend continues, Canadians will have to start thinking about races in a different way, said a Queen's University sociology professor. "The idea of a visible minority is going to have to shift or it's going to start getting more and more ridiculous to talk about a minority of people who in fact are the majority," Richard Day said.

Immigration plays a big role in the growth, along with birth rates and median ages among minority groups.

It's expected a great many of the visible minority group will be the Canadian-born children and grandchildren of immigrants.

Between now and 2031, the foreign-born population of Canada could increase approximately four times faster than the rest of the population and could reach between 9.8 million and 12.5 million.

With files from The Canadian Press