Canadian ethnicity refers to the self-identification of one's ethnic origin or ancestral roots as being Canadian. It was added as a possible response for an ethnic origin in the Canadian census in 1996. The identification is attributed to White Canadians who do not identify with their ancestral ethnic origins due to generational distance from European ancestors. The identification is more common in eastern parts of the country that were first settled by Europeans than in the rest of the country.

Canadians with ancestral roots in France and the British Isles are the most likely groups to identify or perceive their ethnic origin as Canadian. As their languages, traditions, and cultural practices largely define Canadian society, many do not see themselves as linked to any other nation or ethnic group. French-speaking Canadians with settler roots are more likely to perceive their ethnic origin as Canadian than as French, while most English-speaking Canadians whose families have lived in Canada for multiple generations identify with their European ethnic ancestry.

Indigenous Canadians do not perceive their ethnic origin as Canadian, as Canadian identity originated with European settlers and does not reflect Indigenous nations which possess their own languages, cultures, and identities. Indigenous ethnic groups are the First Nations groups, Inuit, and Métis.

"Canadian" was the most common ethnic or cultural origin reported in the 2021 census, reported alone or in combination with other origins by 5.67 million people or 15.6% of the total population.

There exists a contrast in the understanding of ethnicity between English- and French-speaking Canadians. Social scientist Rhoda Howard-Hassmann has stated that among English-speaking Canadians, ethnic identity is frequently misunderstood as meaning biological ancestry, "so that everyone's true identity is presumed to be rooted somewhere else". French-speaking Canadians more frequently perceive their ethnic origin as rooted in cultural heritage rather than biological ancestry.

Canadian identity emerged separately in English and in French, and tends to have different undertones or meanings to speakers of these languages. Beginning in the 1600s, the identity Canadien was originally used exclusively by the French settlers of the French colony of Canada. After New France ceased to exist and settlement from France completely stopped, Canadian identity became adopted by British and English-speaking settlers, following the arrival of United Empire Loyalists to British North America. The English identity Canadian was considered equivalent to the French identity Canadien for the first known time in 1792. Descendants of the settlers of the French colony of Canada began using "French Canadian" and, since the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, "Québécois" to distinguish themselves from other Canadians.

The 1996 census was the first where Statistics Canada allowed "Canadian" as a valid ethnic origin response. It immediately became the most common origin reported and was correlated with a significant decline in English and French origin responses. People with Scottish or Irish origins were likely to list these origins along with "Canadian" and the number of responses for them did not significantly change. By 2001, English and French responses had each declined by more than 3 million from 1986.

Of the 5.67 million people who identified their ethnic origin as Canadian in the 2021 census, 4.18 million reported it as a single origin and 1.49 million reported it in combination with other origins.