Statistics Canada says the national population almost hit 37 million last year and it grew at the fastest rate among G7 nations.
StatsCan says Canada’s population was just over 36.9 million when the census was taken in 2021 which is a 5.2 per cent increase from 2016 to 2021.
The majority of the growth happened before the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Like most other G7 countries, Canada’s population growth from 2016 to 2021 was largely attributable to immigration, accounting for nearly four-fifths of the population gain over the period, while one-fifth was due to natural increase (that is, the number of births minus the number of deaths)
The agency says population growth was at a record high before the pandemic, and then slowed to its lowest rate in a century in 2020. The marked slowdown in population growth in 2020 was almost entirely due to the pandemic induced pause in immigration. As a result, Canada’s population grew 0.4% from January 1 to December 31, 2020—the slowest pace of growth since the First World War.
Statistics Canada says of the approximate 1.8 million more people calling Canada home by 2021, four in every five are immigrants.
Population Changes in Saskatchewan and Western Canada
Saskatchewan saw its population increase 3.1 per cent during the census period from 2016 to 2021. At Census, last May, the population of this province was 1,132, 505. Alberta saw a 4.8 per cent increase in the same time frame with a population of 4.3 million. And Manitoba had a 5 per cent increase in its population during the census period now seeing a population of more than 1.3 million.
For the first time, the 2021 Census tabulated British Columbia’s population at more than 5 million people. It was the only province in Western Canada to have its population growth, which increased 7.6 per cent, to exceed the national average of 5.2 per cent.
British Columbia was also the lone province in Western Canada that saw more people move into the province from elsewhere in Canada than move out between 2016 and 2021.
Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan also all saw more people move out of province than move in from other parts of Canada. Statistics Canada says this is against a backdrop of lower oil prices that started in 2014 and higher unemployment, especially in Alberta.
Pandemic and Fertility Rates
The pandemic not only slowed the arrival of immigrants from other lands, it may also have impacted fertility rates.
Statistics Canada says a recent study suggests that one-fifth of Canadian adults under the age of 50 wanted to have fewer children than previously planned or delayed having children as a result of the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, fertility in Canada had been decreasing since 2015 and hit a record low of 1.4 children per woman in 2020.
Canada’s population growth ranked seventh in the G20 from 2016 to 2021, trailing Saudi Arabia, Australia, South Africa, Turkey, Indonesia and Mexico and on par with India.
Maritimes Grows Faster than the Prairies
In the census period between 2016 and 2021, the population of the Maritimes grew at a faster pace than the Prairies for the first time in the census since the 1940s.
Population growth accelerated in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia over the past five years when compared with the previous census cycle (from 2011 to 2016), while population growth slowed in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
The population in the prairies grew 4.6 per cent while the population of the Maritimes grew by 4.7 per cent.
Population growth also accelerated in Canada’s three largest provinces of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
Statistics Canada says the impacts of the pandemic on population growth were felt from coast to coast to coast due to lower levels of permanent and temporary immigration. After the start of the pandemic, growth slowed but remained positive in eight provinces and all three territories but halted in Saskatchewan while Newfoundland and Labradour saw a decrease after the onset of the pandemic of 0.7 per cent.
