Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The pandemic cover
The restrictions imposed in the health context have slowed the arrival of immigrants and non-permanent residents (temporary workers, foreign students and asylum seekers) on Quebec soil, thus limiting the growth of the total population of the province. Barely more than 26,000 inhabitants would thus have been added in 2021, almost four times less than in 2019, before the pandemic, indicate the projections of the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ). However, these data stop at 1er July 2021. The resumption of international immigration observed after this date last summer is expected to result in a larger population increase for the current year.
Montcalm wins the prize
The MRC de Montcalm, in Lanaudière, saw its population jump by 4.5% in one year. Only two other MRCs, those of Mirabel and Brome-Missisquoi, also recorded gains of more than 4%, closely followed by an MRC of the Laurentians, Les Pays-d’en-Haut (+3.9%). A dozen MRCs have also suffered a drop in population, the worst being once again Montreal (- 2.3%). Longueuil, in the metropolitan area, also shows a decline of 0.2%.
Cities that lose, cities that win
Unsurprisingly, four of the five cities that lost the most population are part of the administrative region of Montreal, and are therefore located on the island. Matane, in Bas-Saint-Laurent, is the only municipality in the region to be part of this club of deserters. At the other end of the spectrum, Saint-Hippolyte, in the Laurentians, is the municipality that has benefited the most from the pandemic movements of the past year, followed closely by Bromont, in Estrie. Apart from Chelsea, in the Outaouais, the other municipalities that have exerted the strongest power of attraction on Quebecers are located on the outskirts of Montreal, in Lanaudière and in Montérégie.
Montreal retains a youthful air
Montreal has been hit twice by the pandemic exodus. Not only did it lose more residents to other regions than in years past, but border restrictions reduced the influx of immigrants and non-permanent residents who usually came to compensate for its regional losses. That said, the metropolis retains the youngest population in the province (with the exception of Nord-du-Québec). More than 63% of its inhabitants are between 20 and 64 years old, the highest proportion in Quebec, reports the ISQ.
Let’s move !
No less than 232,000 Quebecers changed region between 1er July 2020 and the 1er July 2021, a jump of 19%. A surprise that breaks with the trend of recent years. “For a few years now, what we have been observing has been a decrease in the number of interregional migrants from year to year,” underlines Martine St-Amour, demographer at the ISQ. In 20 years, this is the first time that so many Quebecers have changed their postal code during the year!