Quarterly Demographic Estimates
October to December 2020

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Release date: March 18, 2021

Highlights

2020 calendar year

• Canada’s population was estimated at 38,048,738 on January 1, 2021, an increase of 149,461 (+0.4%) from January 1, 2020. This was the lowest growth rate since 1916 (+0.3%).
• Over that period, the population increased in all provinces and territories except for Newfoundland and Labrador (-0.6%) where it decreased, and in Saskatchewan (-0.0%) and the Northwest Territories (+0.0%), where it was stable. However, all jurisdictions that increased had a slower rate of growth in 2020 than in 2019 (except Nunavut).
• The population growth rate in Ontario (+0.4%) was the lowest this province has seen since 1917 and in British Columbia (+0.4%), it was the lowest since 1874.
• Deaths in Canada (309,893) surpassed 300,000 for the first time in Canadian history. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported that 15,651 deaths were due to COVID-19 (5.1%).
• Due to the increased number of deaths and stable births (372,727), natural increase (births minus deaths, +62,834) dropped to its lowest annual level (since at least 1922).
• International migration accounted for 58.0% of population growth in 2020. In comparison, this proportion has been above 65% since 2000 and reached a peak of 85.7% in 2019.
• Canada welcomed 184,624 immigrants in 2020, the lowest in any calendar year since 1998, almost half (-45.9%) of what it was in 2019.
• More non-permanent residents left Canada than came to the country in 2020 (-86,535), which is the largest net loss since comparable records have been available (1972). This is almost entirely due to decreases in work and study permit holders.
• Net emigration (emigrants minus returning emigrants plus net temporary emigration) also decreased in 2020, by 71.0% from levels seen in 2019.
• There was a slight decline in the number of people who moved to another province or territory in 2020 as compared to 2019 (-8.8%). The province with the highest net interprovincial migratory increase in 2020 was British Columbia (+20,994) and the province with the largest net loss was Saskatchewan (-10,318).

Fourth quarter of 2020

• Deaths reached a record high (81,759) for any quarter since comparable records became available. This is mainly due to the increase in the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the fourth quarter (6,324 according to the PHAC).
• The number of new immigrants was about half that of the previous year, but was up 2.6% from the third quarter of 2020. This is the lowest level of immigration in a fourth quarter since 1998.
• The net number of non-permanent residents was negative (-2,560) in the fourth quarter of 2020, following the typical seasonal pattern, yet it was up from the record low in the third quarter (-65,754). The change from the third to the fourth quarter is mostly due to an increase in the number of work permit holders in the fourth quarter.
• The number of interprovincial migrants was down 10.6% from the same quarter in 2019. British Columbia had the largest net gain from interprovincial migration in the fourth quarter (+4,878) due mainly to less people leaving the province, especially those going to Alberta. Manitoba had the largest net loss to interprovincial migration (-1,856).

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