Statistics Canada Says Population Growth Rate in 2023 Was Highest Since 1957

Canada’s population grew faster last year than it has at any time since the 1950s, amid a surge in the number of temporary residents, Statistics Canada reported on March 27. The statistics agency says the population grew by 3.2 percent in 2023, reaching 40,769,890 as of Jan. 1, 2024, the highest rate since 1957, when it grew 3.3 percent. Growth rates above 3 percent have “never been seen in a developed country” since the 1950s, said Frédéric Payeur, a demographer at Quebec’s provincial statistics agency, the Institut de la statistique du Québec. Canada’s migration-driven increase is comparable to Israel’s in the 1960s and Ireland’s in 2006 and 2007—when the country experienced an immigration boom during a period of rapid economic growth, he said. But even then, neither of those countries had population increases above 3 percent....