Nine months after reaching a population of 40 million, Canada has cracked a new threshold.
As of Wednesday morning, it’s estimated 41 million people now call the country home, according to Statistics Canada’s live population tracker.
The speed at which Canada’s population is growing was also reflected in new data released Wednesday by the federal agency: between Jan. 1 2023 and Jan. 1 2024, Canada added 1,271,872 inhabitants, a 3.2 per cent growth rate — the highest since 1957.
Most of Canada’s 3.2 per cent population growth rate stemmed from temporary immigration. Without it, Canada’s population growth would have been 1.2 per cent, Statistics Canada said.
From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2023, Canada’s population increased by 241,494 people (0.6 per cent), the highest rate of growth in a fourth quarter since 1956.
Usha George, a professor at the Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement at Toronto Metropolitan University, told Global News in June a booming population can benefit the economy.
“It is not the bodies we are bringing in; these are bodies that fill in the empty spaces in the labour market,” she said.
“They bring a very-high level of skills.”
Jack’s Note: No mention made by government but many of these new immigrants are sleeping on the streets. Canada isn’t ready for this rapid increase in population but expecting Trudeau to know that is wishful thinking.
