The homicide rate for Indigenous victims was seven times higher than the rate for non-Indigenous people in Canada in 2020, according to Statistics Canada on Thursday.

Statistics Canada said that the homicide rate was 10.05 per 100,000 population for Indigenous peoples, compared with 1.41 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous people.

Statistics Canada said police reported 743 homicides in 2020. This is the highest number of homicides recorded in Canada since 1991, and 56 more than in 2019, pushing Canada's homicide rate up 7 percent from 1.83 homicides per 100,000 population in 2019 to 1.95 per 100,000 population in 2020.

It also marks the highest national homicide rate since 2005. 

There were 201 Indigenous victims of homicide, representing 28 percent of all homicide victims in Canada in 2020. 

The number of Indigenous male victims increased by 32 to 163, up 24 percent compared with 2019, and was the highest since 2014 when data on Indigenous identity first became available.

Homicide rates were almost eight times greater for Indigenous men, at 16.50 per 100,000 population, than non-Indigenous men, at 2.14 per 100,000 population.

Among women, rates were almost 5.5 times greater, at 3.76 per 100,000 Indigenous women compared with 0.69 per 100,000 non-Indigenous women.

A history of colonization, including residential schools, work camps and forced relocation, have profoundly impacted Indigenous communities and families.

Many often experience social and institutional marginalization, discrimination, and various forms of trauma and violence, including intergenerational trauma and gender-based violence, resulting in challenging social and economic circumstances.

This has been seen to play a significant role in the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system and as victims of crime.