Canada's population grew in Q1, driven by international migration and immigration trends
Canada's population surpassed 41 million people in the first quarter of 2024, reaching 41,012,563 on April 1.
This milestone occurred less than a year after Statistics Canada announced the population hit 40 million on June 16, 2023.
The population grew by 242,673 people during the first quarter of 2024, corresponding to a quarterly increase of 0.6 percent. This growth rate mirrors the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2023, both at 0.6 percent.
Following recent trends, international migration accounted for almost all the population growth in Canada (99.3 percent, or 240,955 people) in the first quarter of 2024. This includes both permanent and temporary immigration.
Permanent immigration growth aligns with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada's (IRCC) targets for 2024. Temporary immigration growth mostly occurred before the announcement of caps on permits issued to non-permanent residents (NPRs) in 2024.
Without temporary immigration, Canada's population growth rate in the first quarter of 2024 would have been 0.3 percent. From 2001 to 2021, the first quarter growth rate in Canada ranged from 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent.
Canada has welcomed more than 100,000 immigrants per quarter since the third quarter of 2021, including 121,758 people in the first quarter of 2024.
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island each welcomed their highest number of immigrants in any quarter since comparable data became available in the third quarter of 1971. The increase in permanent immigration to the Maritimes responds to the growing need for skilled workers.
Canada added 131,810 NPRs to the population in the first quarter of 2024, higher than the increase observed in the first quarter of 2023 (108,435).
However, the net increase in the first quarter of 2024 was one of the lowest since higher levels of temporary migration began in the second quarter of 2022, lower than the record highs seen in the second (233,361) and third (312,758) quarters of 2023.
All provinces and territories saw an increase in NPRs in the first quarter of 2024, except for Prince Edward Island (-338) and New Brunswick (-218). Yukon had the same number of NPRs at the beginning and end of the quarter.
The total number of NPRs living in Canada increased for the ninth quarter in a row, reaching a record high of 2,793,594 on April 1. Of these, 2,430,282 were permit holders (work or study) and their family members, and 363,312 were asylum claimants, protected persons, and related groups (with or without work or study permits).
The number of people holding only work permits increased by 94,299 in the first quarter of 2024, while those holding only study permits decreased by 24,594. The decrease in study permits in the first quarter is not uncommon, but the magnitude was greater than in the same quarter of 2023 (-16,003).
Interprovincial migration slowed in the first quarter of 2024, with 89,408 migrants, compared to 97,917 migrants in the same quarter the previous year, a decrease of 8.7 percent.
Most provinces and territories experienced net losses in exchanges with other provinces or territories, except for Alberta (+12,482), New Brunswick (+1,627), and Yukon (+60).
Alberta saw net gains for the 11th straight quarter, following net losses in 19 out of 24 quarters from the third quarter of 2015 to the second quarter of 2021.
The largest contributors to Alberta’s net gain were people moving from Ontario (9,398 in-migrants) and British Columbia (9,218 in-migrants). When people left Alberta, they tended to move to British Columbia (5,744 out-migrants) and Ontario (3,893 out-migrants).
Ontario had the largest net loss of people to other provinces and territories for the 10th quarter in a row, with a net loss of 9,020 people in the first quarter of 2024. Ontario has posted net losses in interprovincial migration for the past 17 quarters, since the first quarter of 2020.
