Signage marks the Statistics Canada offices in Ottawa on July 21, 2010.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
September 29, 2021 - 4:33 PM
Canada's population growth has slowed substantially as COVID-19 raised the number of deaths and border closures preventing immigration, Statistics Canada says.
The estimated population still grew to a little over 38 million people but at a rate much lower than pre-pandemic levels and at the lowest increases since Canada was at war, according to Statistics Canada. Canada's population grew just 0.5% from July 2020 to July 2021, an increase of 208,904 people.
"This increase was the smallest figure since 1945, and the slowest rate of growth since 1916, two periods when Canada was at war. By comparison, the population grew by 536,146 (+1.4%) between 2018 and 2019, before the pandemic," StatsCan said in a report on demographics estimates released today, Sept. 29. "The third quarter of 2020 had the lowest growth ever recorded for any quarter, showing a net loss of population for the first time since at least 1971."
This came after the third quarter of 2019, which had the highest quarterly growth ever recorded. More people called themselves Canadian in that quarter — 210,169 — than the entire year from July 2020 to July 2021.
COVID-caused mortality is one of the major factors contributing to Canada’s meagre population growth.
The loss of non-permanent residents, as they return to their home countries, immigration restrictions and the mass migration to British Columbia has left most other provinces with population deficits while B.C. continued to grow.
Amid the pandemic, British Columbia experienced more growth than any other province, growing by 1.1%. The population gain in B.C. is largely attributed to interprovincial migration, predominantly from Alberta and Ontario.
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