Canada’s population estimates, third quarter 2022
“Canada’s population was estimated at 39,292,355 people on October 1, 2022, an increase of 362,453 people (+0.9%) from July 1, 2022. This was the highest quarterly population growth rate since the second quarter of 1957 (+1.2%). At the time, Canada’s population was 16.7 million people and it increased by 198,000 people. This rapid population growth was related to the high number of births during the post-war baby boom and the high immigration of refugees following the Hungarian Revolution in 1956.
This recent three-month growth of over 362,000 people is a similar level of growth that Canada used to see in an entire year about one decade ago. For example, during the whole of 2011, Canada’s population grew by 350,253 people.
Canada’s total population growth for the first nine months of 2022 (+776,217 people) has already surpassed the total growth for any full-year period since Confederation in 1867. This high level of growth was mostly (94.0%) due to international migration (+340,666 people), which pushed Canada’s population over 39 million for the first time.
In the third quarter of 2022, Canada welcomed 122,145 immigrants, about the same number as in the third quarter of 2021 (122,911) and the second-highest number of immigrants in any third quarter since 1946, the year quarterly data became available. Immigration levels remained elevated, reflecting higher targets from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
However, the record population growth in the third quarter of 2022 was mainly driven by an increase of 225,198 non-permanent residents (NPRs). This increase was almost 68,000 more people than the last record increase, in the second quarter of 2022 (+157,310).
The increase of NPRs in the third quarter of 2022 was larger than any full-year increase since 1971 (when data on NPRs became available). This increase was driven by work permit holders, but all types of NPRs increased, and Canada continued welcoming people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. All provinces and territories saw an increase in the number of NPRs, with Ontario (+106,459), British Columbia (+39,429) and Quebec (+34,299) accounting for 80.0% of the increase.
Ontario continued experiencing net losses to interprovincial migration, which began in the first quarter of 2020. The loss in the third quarter of 2022 (-11,581) was the largest net loss for Ontario in a third quarter since the third quarter of 1980 (-18,244). Alberta (+19,285) had the highest net gain from interprovincial migration in a third quarter since 1980 (+20,706), while British Columbia (-4,799) had net losses to interprovincial migration for the first time in any quarter for almost one decade (first quarter of 2013, -383).
In addition to new demographic estimates for the third quarter of 2022, revised estimates are also available for deaths by age and sex from 2020/2021 and for the population by age and sex from October 1, 2020. The estimates released today are based on 2016 Census of Population counts, adjusted for census net under-coverage and incompletely enumerated reserves and settlements. To these counts, the population growth estimates for the period from May 10, 2016, to the date of the estimate are added. They are not to be confused with the 2021 Census of Population counts released on February 9, 2022. Population estimates based on the 2021 Census of Population results will be disseminated in September 2023, when census coverage study results become available.”
*This article is excerpted from Statistics Canada website, published 21 December 2022