Nine months after reaching a population of 40 million, Canada has cracked a new threshold.
As of Wednesday morning, it’s estimated that 41 million people now call the country home, according to Statistics Canada’s live population tracker.
The speed at which Canada’s population is growing was also reflected in new data released Wednesday by the federal agency: between Jan. 1 2023 and Jan. 1, 2024, Canada added 1,271,872 inhabitants, a 3.2 per cent growth rate — the highest since 1957.
Most of Canada’s 3.2 percent population growth rate stemmed from temporary immigration. Without it, Canada’s population growth would have been 1.2 percent, Statistics Canada said.
From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2023, Canada’s population increased by 241,494 people (0.6 percent), the highest rate of growth in the fourth quarter since 1956.
Usha George, a professor at the Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement at Toronto Metropolitan University, told Global News in June a booming population can benefit the economy.
“It is not the bodies we are bringing in; these are bodies that fill in the empty spaces in the labor market,” she said.
“They bring a very high level of skills.”
However, Ottawa has recently sought to ease the flow of temporary immigration in a bid to ease cost-of-living woes.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said on March 21 that Ottawa would set targets for temporary residents allowed into Canada to ensure “sustainable” growth in the number of temporary residents entering the nation.
The next day, BMO economist Robert Kavcic in a note to clients the new limits would have a positive impact on Canada’s rental market and overall housing crisis.
“We’ve been firm in our argument that Canada has had an excess demand problem in housing, and this is maybe the clearest example,” Kavcic said.
“Non-permanent resident inflows, on the net, have swelled to about 800K in the latest year, with few checks and balances in place, putting tremendous stress on housing supply and infrastructure.”
Source: Global News
