A quarterly population estimate released by Statistics Canada (“CANSIM”) on March 22, 2018 reveals an uncommonly high increase on the Canadian population growth in the fourth quarter of 2017, due to international migration. CANSIM has federal responsibility of producing statistics that help Canadians better understand their country, in terms of population, resources, economy, society and culture factors.
The data products and analyses released by CANSIM from its latest census, social and economic surveys, provide Canadians with a detailed portrait of the country. The preliminary estimates by CANSIM, shows that Canada's population was 36,963,854 on January 1, 2018, an increase of 78,805 from October 1, 2017 and confirms that international migration is the main source of Canadian population growth. In the fourth quarter, Canada's population growth rate was 0.2% and between October 1, 2017 and January 1, 2018, International migratory increase was 55,048, accounting for about 70% of the increase seen during the last three-month period.
CANSIM stated that the statistics were calculated by adding immigrants, returning emigrants and net non-permanent residents, and by subtracting emigrants and net temporary emigration, confirming that international migration contributed to the population growth.
In addition, the uneven growth was seen in the other provinces and in Yukon in the fourth quarter, with the exception of the Atlantic provinces, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This population growth exceeded the national average of 0.2% in Yukon (+0.4%) and in Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta (+0.3% each). Alberta posted slight gains in its migratory exchanges with the other provinces and territories (+302 persons) for the second quarter in a row, following two years of consecutive losses.
CANSIM’s data analyses confirm that Canada's population of aging workers born in Canada, is significantly declining and the economic growth is becoming increasingly dependent on immigrants, illustrating the need to bring in more immigrants to support its labour force, otherwise, Canada's born population growth would not be sufficient to sustain the economic growth and welfare. Please click on these links for further information:
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/180322/dq180322c-eng.htm?HPA=1&indid=4098-1&indgeo=0
