Annual Demographic Estimates: Canada, Provinces and Territories, 2022

Highlights

Total population, July 1, 2022

• In 2021/2022, Canada’s population grew by a record 703,404 people (+1.8%) to reach an estimated 38,929,902 on July 1, 2022. This growth greatly surpasses the preceding high observed one year before the pandemic (2018/2019), when the population grew by 536,146 people (+1.4%).
• After a year of record low growth at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (+0.6% in 2020/2021), Canada’s growth rate in 2021/2022 (+1.8%) reached a level that has not been seen in more than 50 years (since 1965/1966, +1.9%), when the country was witnessing the end of the baby boom.
• For the first time in Canadian history, the population of Ontario surpassed 15 million people during 2021/2022. Over the same time period, the population of Nova Scotia passed the one million-mark, New Brunswick surpassed 800,000 residents and Nunavut now has more than 40,000 residents.
• The growth observed for 2021/2022 was mainly due to increased international migration as a result of easing COVID-19 border restrictions, increased immigration targets by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and the welcoming of people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Population growth due to international migration in 2021/2022 (+657,833) was at its highest since at least the beginning of the current demographic accounting system (July 1971). It was more than four times the level seen at the height of the pandemic in 2020/2021 (+164,184).
• International migration accounted for 93.5% of Canada’s growth in 2021/2022, up from 74.9% in 2020/2021 and surpassing the previous high of 83.2% in 2018/2019. This is a result of higher immigration targets in 2021/2022 and could also result from catch-up growth following lower immigration during the height of the pandemic.
• For the first time since at least 1971/1972, Ontario gained more than 300,000 people from international migration.
• Higher levels of growth due to international migration were due in part to a higher than usual net gain of non-permanent residents (+205,238) for 2021/2022 after a year of net loss of non-permanent residents in 2020/2021 (-42,377).
• In addition to Ontario (+117,403), two other provinces set record highs for the increase in the number of non-permanent residents: New Brunswick (+4,836) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+2,338).
• The number of immigrants in 2021/2022 (492,984) was also higher than what was seen during the height of the pandemic (226,308 in 2020/2021) which also contributed to the increased growth from international migration.
• For the 2021/2022 period, the population growth rate was the highest among the Maritime provinces, with Prince Edward Island (+3.5%), Nova Scotia (+2.8%) and New Brunswick (+2.7%) recording the highest population growth rates across all provinces and territories. Newfoundland and Labrador, for the first time in the last six years, recorded positive population growth in 2021/2022 (+1.1%).
• All provinces and territories saw historical gains from immigration, with the exception of British Colombia, which saw the second highest gains ever (after 2015/2016). The Atlantic provinces more than doubled the number of immigrants from the year prior: Newfoundland and Labrador (2,843), Prince Edward Island (3,436), Nova Scotia (13,816) and New Brunswick (8,401).
• Ontario (-47,212) and Manitoba (-10,203) each saw among their highest net losses to other provinces and territories through interprovincial migration on record.
• By far, Ontario supplied the majority of interprovincial migrants to its eastern neighbours: Quebec (62.1%), New Brunswick (59.5%), Nova Scotia (57.4%), Prince Edward Island (68.0%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (49.7%). A substantial number of Ontario migrants elected to move to Alberta (29,422) and British Columbia (22,750). Rising cost of housing in Ontario and increasing ability to telework post-pandemic may be contributing forces.
• Alberta (+21,660), British Columbia (+15,869) and Nova Scotia (+14,079) saw the highest net gains in interprovincial migrants across the country. Alberta recorded positive net interprovincial migration in 2021/2022 for the first time since 2014/2015.

Population by age and sex

• On July 1, 2022, 18.8% of Canadians (7,329,910 people) were at least 65 years of age. The gap is widening between the number of people in this age group and that of children aged 0 to 14 years (6,070,741 people, or 15.6% of population).
• Population aging continues, a result of fertility being below the replacement level since the early 1970s and an almost continuous increase in life expectancy. The advancing age of baby boomers—large cohorts of those born between 1946 and 1965—is accelerating this demographic aging. On July 1, 2022, almost two in three people aged 65 and older (63.8%) were baby boomers (aged 65 to 76) and more than half (50.8%) of all baby boomers were aged 65 and older.
• In 2022, the average age of Canadians was 41.7. The average age has increased by 3.9 years since 2002, when it was 37.8 years.
• At the provincial and territorial level, Newfoundland and Labrador was the province with the highest average age (45.3 years), while the lowest average age was recorded in Nunavut (29.3 years).
• On July 1, 2022, for every 100 people of working age (15 to 64 years), Canada had 52.5 people aged 0 to 14 or 65 and older. The demographic dependency ratio has been rising steadily since 2007 (44.0).
• Particularly because of the increase in life expectancy, the number of centenarians has close to quadrupled from 2002 to 2022, increasing from 3,764 to 13,484 people. In comparison, for every 100,000 people, there were 12 centenarians in 2002—now 35 in 2022.

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