Canada hits new population growth record, not seen in nearly seven decades
Canada has been experiencing drastic population growth for a while. Now, we’ve hit a record not seen in 67 years.
According to the country’s population clock, we hit the 41 million mark on Wednesday.
Last June, Canada’s population clock struck 40 million for the first time. The tracker measures the changes by considering the rate of births, deaths, immigrants, emigrants, non-permanent residents, and inter-provincial migrants.
By October 2023, the country’s population had topped 40.5 million, an increase of over 430,000 people from July 1, per Statistics Canada. The agency says this was the highest population growth in any quarter since 1957, when Canada’s population grew by 198,000 people.
Now, we’ve hit a new record — an annual one that hasn’t been seen in 67 years.
“On January 1, 2024, Canada’s population reached 40,769,890 inhabitants, which corresponds to an increase of 1,271,872 people compared with January 1, 2023,” reads a Statistics Canada population report released on Wednesday, March 27. “This was the highest annual population growth rate (+3.2%) in Canada since 1957 (+3.3%).”
The agency said this 3.2% annual growth happened due to temporary immigration in 2023.
“Without temporary immigration, that is, relying solely on permanent immigration and natural increase (births minus deaths), Canada’s population growth would have been almost three times less (+1.2%),” the report added.
In 2023, the population naturally increased by only 2.4%. The low increase could partly be attributed to Canada’s fertility rate reaching a record low in 2022 (1.33 children per woman).
On the other hand, 97.6% of 2023’s population increase came from international temporary and permanent immigration).
Last August, Canada’s housing minister, Sean Fraser, told reporters that a cap was “one of the options” Ottawa was considering to address the lack of housing amidst the “explosive growth” of temporary immigration programs like the international student program.
In January, the feds capped international student visas for two years to “maintain a sustainable level of temporary residence in Canada.”
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said the temporary application cap is expected to result in approximately 364,000 approved international student study permits, which is a decrease of 35% from 2023.
The effects of this measure remain to be seen.
With files from Isabelle Docto
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