Canada's population growth is driven by international migration and immigration targets
Canada's population has surpassed 41 million people in the first quarter of 2024, reaching 41,012,563 on April 1.
Statistics Canada announced this milestone less than a year after the population hit 40 million on June 16, 2023.
The population grew by 242,673 people during the first quarter of 2024, marking a quarterly increase of 0.6 percent. This growth rate is consistent with the rates seen in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2023.
Almost all the population growth in Canada (99.3 percent, or 240,955 people) in the first quarter of 2024 was due to international migration, including both permanent and temporary immigration.
For permanent immigration, this growth aligns with the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) target for immigrants in 2024. For temporary immigration, most of the growth occurred before the announcement of caps on permits for non-permanent residents (NPRs) in 2024.
Without temporary immigration, Canada's population growth rate during the first quarter of 2024 would have been 0.3 percent. From 2001 to 2021, the first quarter growth rate in Canada ranged from 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent.
Canada has welcomed more than 100,000 immigrants per quarter since the third quarter of 2021, including 121,758 people in the first quarter of 2024.
The Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia (+3,999), New Brunswick (+3,999), and Prince Edward Island (+1,330) each welcomed their highest number of immigrants in any quarter since comparable data became available in the third quarter of 1971.
The increase in permanent immigration to the Maritimes addresses the growing need for skilled workers.
Canada added 131,810 NPRs to the population in the first quarter of 2024, higher than the 108,435 added in the first quarter of 2023.
However, the net increase in the first quarter of 2024 was one of the lowest since higher levels of temporary migration began in the second quarter of 2022, and lower than the record highs seen in the second and third quarters of 2023.
All provinces and territories saw an increase in NPRs in the first quarter of 2024, except for Prince Edward Island (-338) and New Brunswick (-218). Yukon had the same estimated number of NPRs at the beginning and end of the quarter.
The total number of NPRs living in Canada increased for the ninth quarter in a row to reach a record high of 2,793,594 on April 1, 2024. Of these, 2,430,282 were permit holders (work or study) and their family members, and 363,312 were asylum claimants, protected persons, and related groups.
While the number of people who hold only work permits (+94,299) increased in the first quarter of 2024, the number of people who hold only study permits (-24,594) decreased.
A lower number of people holding only study permits is not uncommon in a first quarter, but the magnitude of the decrease in the first quarter of 2024 was greater than that in the same quarter of 2023 (-16,003).
Interprovincial migration (89,408 migrants) was slower in the first quarter of 2024 than in the same quarter one year earlier (97,917 migrants; -8.7 percent).
Most provinces and territories experienced net losses in their exchanges with other provinces or territories in the first quarter of 2024, except for Alberta (+12,482), New Brunswick (+1,627), and Yukon (+60).
This was the 11th straight quarter of net gains for Alberta, following losses in 19 out of 24 quarters from the third quarter of 2015 to the second quarter of 2021.
The largest contributors to Alberta's net gain were people moving from Ontario (9,398 in-migrants) and British Columbia (9,218 in-migrants). Conversely, when people left Alberta, they tended to move to British Columbia (5,744 out-migrants) and Ontario (3,893 out-migrants).
For the 10th quarter in a row, Ontario (-9,020) had the largest net loss of people to other provinces and territories in the first quarter of 2024. Ontario has posted net losses in interprovincial migration for the past 17 quarters (since the first quarter of 2020).
