A faster increase in the number of deaths compared to number of births
- In 2011, Canada registered more births (377,636) than deaths (242,074), resulting in a positive natural increase of 135,562.
- The number of births has considerably declined since peaking at nearly half a million in 1959. However, there have been fluctuations in the number of births in the last four decades, including a small rise in the early 1990s. In contrast, there has been a fairly steady increase in the number of deaths over the past 90 years.
- The number of deaths is projected to accelerate in the coming decades according to all the scenarios of the population projections. Under the low-growth scenario, the number of deaths could start exceeding the number of births in 2030, when the baby boomers reach the ages of high mortality. According to the medium- and high-growth scenarios—which assume fertility of 1.7 and 1.9 children per woman, respectively—natural increase would remain positive until the end of the projection period in 2060.
![Figure 12](../c-g/figure12-eng.gif)
Description for figure 12