The national statistical agency says Canada’s population will touch a new milestone tomorrow after a record-setting year of growth.
Statistics Canada’s Population Clock, which models population growth in real time based on a number of factors (including recent trends for births, deaths and migration data), will reach 40 million just before 3 p.m. (EDT) on June 16.
In 2022, the country’s population grew by an unprecedented 1.1 million people, most of them permanent and temporary immigrants. The 40-million mark was reached even faster than expected on account of this influx.
“This is an exciting milestone for Canada,” says Chief Statistician Anil Arora. “It is a strong signal that Canada remains a dynamic and welcoming country, full of potential. As we head into Canada Day, this is certainly cause for celebration!”
Statistics Canada (StatCan) says that when the first Europeans started to settle in North America in the 16th century, the territory that is now Canada was already called home by an estimated 200,000 to 2 million First Nations and Inuit peoples.
Over the early 19th century, the population continued to grow through immigration, mainly from the British Isles. Starting in the second half of the 19th century, immigration became more diverse as Chinese immigrants started to settle in Canada and later contributed to building the Canadian Pacific Railway.
By 1867, the year of the Confederation of Canada, an estimated 3,463,000 people were living in the country, mostly in what are now Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces.
Starting in the late 19th century and until the First World War, new waves of immigration began to arrive in Canada, further accelerating population growth. The immigrants coming were mainly from European countries such as Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Netherlands, as well as Scandinavian countries.
In 1870, Manitoba joined the Canadian Confederation, soon followed by British Columbia in 1871. A few decades later, in 1905, it was Saskatchewan and Alberta’s turn to join Canada. By then, there were already over five million Canadians.
Then in 1913, Canada welcomed a record-setting 400,000 immigrants, a number that wasn’t reached again until 2021.
StatCan says that despite a dip in immigration and population growth during and between the two world wars and the Great Depression of the early 1930s, Canada’s population reached 10 million in 1929.
In 1960, more than 463,000 babies were born in Canada, a record that still stands today. In comparison, 368,000 babies were born in 2021, even though the total population was over two times larger than that in 1960.
By 1966, at the end of the baby boom period, Canada’s population had peaked at 20 million people, with a large share of children aged between 0 and 14 years.
With Canadian couples having fewer children, immigration became the key driver of population growth by the mid-1990s. As immigration levels started to increase at the end of the 1980s, Canada’s population reached 30 million in 1997. This trend has continued and in 2022, international migration accounted for almost all (96%) of the country’s growth.
If current immigration levels stay in place, Canada’s population could hit the 50-million mark by 2043—that’s just 20 years from now. For comparison, it took 26 years to go from 30 to 40 million.
What’s more, by 2041, two in five Canadians could be born abroad, which would be a record high.
