Canada's population surges by more than 430,000 in space of 3 months

Canada’s population surged by more than 430,000 in the three months from July to October this year.

That’s more than 140,000 extra people every month, or just under 5,000 a day.

It’s the fastest population growth recorded in Canada in any three-month period since 1957, according to Statistics Canada.

It brings the estimated national population – as of Oct. 1 – up to 40.528 million.

In British Columbia, the population grew 1.1 per cent over the same three months, bringing it up to 5.581 million.

That’s an increase of more than 62,000 people.

StatCan said the national population growth in the first nine months of 2023 has already surpassed the total for 2022. The country added 1.03 million people between January and October.

The growth is almost entirely due to international migration, with 108,000 permanent residents added in the three months between July and October.

There was also a net increase of more than 310,000 non-permanent residents in the third quarter, bringing the non-permanent resident population up to 2.5 million from 2.2 million.

"The gain in non-permanent residents was mostly due to an increase in the number of work and study permit holders and, to a lesser extent, an increase in the number of refugee claimants," StatCan explained.

The last time Canada saw population growth on this scale was in 1957, when a homegrown baby boom combined with the arrival of large numbers of refugees fleeing communism in Hungary.

Back then, the country’s population of 16.7 million grew by 198,000 over three months, an increase of 1.2 per cent and a shade higher than 2023’s three-month growth of 1.1 per cent.

“In the third quarter of 2023, the vast majority (96 per cent) of the population growth was due to international migration,” StatCan said.

“The rest of this gain (four per cent) was the result of natural increase, or the difference between the number of births and deaths. The contribution of natural increase to population growth is expected to remain low in the coming years because of population aging, lower fertility levels, and the high number of immigrants and non-permanent residents coming to Canada.”

The data also show that all provinces except Alberta and New Brunswick recorded net losses in interprovincial migration.

Alberta saw net gains of 17,094, while BC recorded a net loss of 4,634.

That’s the fifth quarter – representing 15 months – in a row that the province has lost more people to interprovincial migration than it has gained.

StatCan said most of Alberta’s gains came due to migration from BC and Ontario.

A Leger survey released last month found that just over half of respondents think immigration to Canada is too high.

Large majorities of participants in the poll said they think immigration has pushed up house prices and put pressure on the health system.

The Leger poll mostly accords with an Environics Institute survey released in October, which found that 44 per cent of participants believe immigration to Canada is too high, up from 27 per cent in 2022.

The majority of participants (51 per cent) in that survey, however, disagreed that immigration levels are too high.