- By Madeleine Halpert
- BBC News, New York
1 hour ago
Image source, Getty Images
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Canada is experiencing the highest annual population growth since 1957
Canada’s population will grow by over a million people in 2022 for the first time ever, the government said on Wednesday.
According to Statistics Canada, the country’s population increased from 38,516,138 on January 1, 2022 to 39,566,248 people on January 1, 2023.
It also marked Canada’s highest annual population growth rate – 2.7% – since 1957.
Migration accounted for nearly 96% of population growth, the agency said.
The surge was fueled in part by government efforts to recruit migrants to the country to alleviate labor shortages, Statistics Canada said.
But the increase in the number of permanent and temporary immigrants “could also pose additional challenges for some regions of the country in terms of housing, infrastructure and transport, as well as the provision of services to the population,” the government said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made efforts to attract more immigrants to the country to fill a gap in its economy due to aging baby boomers. Last year, the government announced a plan to take in 500,000 immigrants annually by 2025.
The Canadian government is also taking in people affected by conflicts such as the Ukraine war, the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
The country accepted 437,000 immigrants in 2022, while the country’s non-permanent residents increased by 607,782, marking a “record year for processing immigration applications,” according to the agency.
The population increase also means Canada would rank first among the 38 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation for population growth in 2022, while it was also the fastest-growing G7 country, Statistics Canada said.
If Canada maintained the 2.7% annual increase, its population would double in 26 years, the Canadian government said.