Although the onset of the pandemic has slowed population growth, Canada’s population growth rate remains the highest in the G7. Canada’s population has grown almost twice as fast as that of the other countries in the group, to just under 37 million people in 2021. This is according to the first results of Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census. unveiled on Wednesday.
Canada’s population growth also ranked seventh in the G20 from 2016 to 2021, behind Saudi Arabia, Australia, South Africa, Turkey, Indonesia and Mexico, and tied than India.
Most of the increase occurred before the pandemic, with Canada’s population growing by a record 583,000 (+1.6%) in 2019.
Canada had about 1.8 million more people in 2021 compared to the last census data five years earlier. It is above all immigration, and not fertility, that has fueled this demographic growth: of the 1.8 million newcomers, four out of five people had immigrated. Immigration targets for permanent and temporary immigrants have also increased since 2015.
Immigration is also the main reason behind the slowdown since 2020 due to border restrictions put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Although the pandemic slowed the movement of people around the world, immigration still contributed to the 0.4% increase in Canada’s population in 2020. The population of the United States meanwhile increased by 0.1% from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2021.
Immigration remains the main driver of population growth in almost all provinces and territories. Prince Edward Island and British Columbia recorded the fastest growth rates among the provinces, mainly due to immigration.
Resort destinations like Squamish in British Columbia, Canmore in Alberta, and Wasaga Beach and Collingwood in Ontario are also among the fastest growing communities in the country.
Falling fertility
The natural increase of the population, that is the number of births minus the number of deaths, is the second factor that has stimulated population growth in the country. However, Canada is a country where the fertility rate is low and has been falling steadily since 2008.
The COVID-19 pandemic is also believed to have intensified this trend, with Canada’s fertility rate dropping from 1.47 children per woman in 2019 to an all-time low of 1.40 children per woman in 2020.
According to a recent study, one-fifth of Canadian adults under the age of 50 want to have fewer children than they previously planned or have decided to wait before having children because of the pandemic.
The rate of natural increase in Canada has thus decreased, from 0.3% in 2016 to 0.1% in 2021, the lowest level ever recorded. This rate should not become negative (more deaths than births) over the next 50 years, unlike other countries, such as Italy and Japan.
Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are the only provinces and territories in Canada where population growth is based primarily on natural increase. Both territories have much higher fertility rates than elsewhere in Canada and therefore have a younger population.
Over the next few months, Statistics Canada will release all of the results from the 2021 Census, which will provide a comprehensive statistical portrait of Canadian communities from coast to coast.