Quarterly Demographic Estimates
October to December 2021

Release date: March 17, 2022

Highlights

Fourth quarter of 2021

• Canada’s population was estimated at 38,526,760 on January 1, 2022, an increase of 90,313 people (+0.2%) from October 1, 2021.
• The country’s population growth of the 2021 fourth quarter (+90,313) came closer to its pre-pandemic levels. While Canada’s population grew by 35,858 during the last quarter of 2020, the increase was estimated at 97,200 people for the same period in 2019.
• The key driver of Canada’s population growth is international migration. In the last three months of 2021, international migration accounted for 92.5% of the Canadian population growth.
• For a second consecutive quarter, Canada issued permanent residence to more than 100,000 people. In the last three months of 2021, 138,182 people became permanent residents, a quarterly all-time high.
• Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Alberta were the provinces posting the strongest population growth rates  (+0.4%) in the country during the fourth quarter of 2021.

2021 calendar year

• Canada’s population rose by 457,888 (+1.2%) in 2021. This growth is similar to what was observed in the three years before the pandemic (2016 to 2019).
• While still below pre-pandemic levels, natural increase in 2021 (+57,712) was higher than in 2020 (+50,591).
• International migration accounted for 87.4% of the country’s population growth in 2021.
• In 2021, Canada issued permanent residence to more than 400,000 people, a first since 1972, the beginning of the period covered by the current demographic accounting system.
• The strongest population growth rates in 2021 were observed in Prince Edward Island (+3.0%) and Nova Scotia (+2.1%). These were the only two provinces whose annual growth topped 2.0%.

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