Newcomers represent 23% of the Canadian population, the highest proportion ever seen in the history of Confederation, according to new data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.
Thus, nearly one in four people in Canada was either a landed immigrant or a permanent resident in 2021, or had been, reveal data from the last census.
Statistics Canada indicates that this new record makes Canada the G7 country with the highest proportion of immigrants in its population.
The government agency points out that more than half of the new arrivals received recently come from economic immigration. Statistics Canada estimates that newcomers can fill labor shortages “in a number of sectors and regions across the country.”
Decline in the proportion of those who settle in Montreal
In Quebec, economic immigration programs are the responsibility of the provincial government and 46.4% of recent newcomers in 2021 had been admitted as skilled workers.
In addition, Statistics Canada notes that Montreal received a smaller share of immigration in 2021 (12.2%) than in 2016 (14.8%), the year of the previous census. This is the steepest decline among the three largest Canadian urban centres.
A greater number of newcomers than before are settling outside the main urban centers of the country, such as in the Ottawa and Gatineau region, it is reported.
The proportion of recent immigrants who have chosen to settle in rural areas, in Canada as a whole, accounts for only 3.2%.
More than 60% of new arrivals admitted between 2016 and 2021 were born in Asia. The most common source country for recent immigrants was India in 2021, at 18.6%. In 2016, the Philippines ranked first and now ranks second.
Slightly more than half use mainly French in Quebec
Census data also indicates that 60.4% of recent immigrants to Canada had neither French nor English as their mother tongue. Outside of Quebec, nearly nine out of 10 newcomers choose English as Canada’s first official language spoken.
“The predominant knowledge or use of French or English generally orients immigrants to one or the other of Canada’s two official language communities in the public sphere, and even in the private sphere”, writes Statistics Canada.
In Quebec, 54.4% of recent immigrants had French as their main official language spoken and 25.5% had only English. 14.7% said they spoke both English and French.
Statistics Canada expects data to be released later on language in the workplace to provide a more complete picture of linguistic integration.