The country’s population hit 39,566,248 after adding 1,050,110 people in 1 year, a sizeable gain – not seen since the post-war baby boom of the 1950
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Ottawa
Canada saw unprecedented population growth in the last year due to a surge in immigrants and temporary residents, the government statistical agency said. It added that if the trend continues the nation will double its population in 26 years.
International migration accounted for nearly all of the growth (95.9 %) as Ottawa sought to bring in more and more immigrants to fill a labor shortage. “This marks the first 12-month period in Canada’s history where the population grew by over 1 million people,” Statistics Canada said.
With an increase of 2.7 %, Canada led other Group of Seven industrialized nations and ranked among the top 20 in the world for population growth, the agency said.
Faced with near-record low unemployment (5.0 %) and an aging population — with one in seven people in Canada between the ages of 55 and 64 years — the government doubled its target for welcoming newcomers. A record 437,180 immigrants landed in Canada in 2022, and that number is scheduled to rise to 500,000 per year by 2025. The number of non-permanent residents granted work or study permits in Canada also spiked last year to 607,782.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced that a program to help temporarily resettle Ukrainians in Canada, which was due to expire next week, would be extended by another year. The government has also made it easier for Afghans facing instability to come to Canada, as well as Turks and Syrians following recent earthquakes that have killed more than 50,000 people in those two countries.
