Annual Demographic Estimates: Canada, Provinces and Territories, 2023

Highlights

Total population, July 1, 2023

• From July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023 (2022/2023), Canada’s population grew by 1,158,705 people (2.9%) to an estimated 40,097,761 on July 1, 2023. This represents a significant increase from the previous year (1.8% in 2021/2022) and the highest growth rate for any 12-month period since 1957 (3.3%) when Canada welcomed many refugees from the Hungarian revolution and when the post-war baby boom was at its high.
• Alberta saw the highest growth rate of all provinces and territories in 2022/2023 at 4.0%. Meanwhile, every single province from coast to coast experienced their fastest annual pace of growth since at least 2000/2001. All three territories also saw positive population growth.
• International migration accounted for 98% of Canada’s growth in 2022/2023. Those high levels are related to efforts by the Government of Canada to ease labour shortages in key sectors of the economy as well as a record-breaking year for the processing of immigration applications at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
• Population growth due to international migration in 2022/2023 (+1,131,181) was at its highest on record. It was significantly higher than the previous highest level seen just one year prior in 2021/2022 (+654,308).
• The increase in the estimated net number of non-permanent residents (NPRs) in 2022/2023 was the highest ever, reaching 697,701, up from the previous record set just one year ago in 2021/2022 with 195,772.
• The increase in the net number of NPRs surpassed the increase due to new immigrants (468,817) in 2022/2023, continuing a trend that started in the calendar year 2022.
• The estimated number of NPRs in Canada reached 2,198,679 on July 1, 2023, up from 1,500,978 on July 1, 2022. NPRs increased for all permit types with most of the change over the past year due to an increase in work permit holders (+401,669). Study permit holders (+104,710), holders of work and study permits (+83,988) and asylum claimants with a work permit (+68,793) also saw significant increases over the last year.
• In 2022/2023, every province and territory across Canada saw the largest population gains from international migration on record for the period where comparable data exist (since 1971).
• As of July 1, 2023, NPRs were estimated to represent 5.5% of the population of Canada. Among provinces, this proportion was highest in British Columbia (7.3%) and Ontario (6.3%) and lowest in Newfoundland and Labrador (2.4%) and Saskatchewan (2.5%). The 2.2 million NPRs now outnumber the 1.8 million Indigenous people enumerated during the 2021 Census of Population.
• In 2022/2023, 348,370 Canadians moved between provinces and territories, similar to the record levels seen a year prior (348,777). Alberta saw record net gains from migratory exchanges between provinces with 56,245 more people moving to the province than those leaving it. Not only is this the highest annual net gain for Alberta, but it is also the highest annual net gain ever recorded for any single province or territory since 1971/1972 (period for which comparable data exist).
• Alberta saw net gains from its interprovincial exchanges with all other provinces and territories in 2022/2023. The most significant change is observed in movements between British Columbia and Alberta. In 2021/2022, Alberta saw net losses of 8,301 people to British Columbia, but it saw net gains of 16,462 in 2022/2023.
• Ontario saw net losses to interprovincial migration of 41,929 in 2022/2023. This marks highest net annual migratory losses recorded by the province since comparable data are available (1971/1972). Among all provinces, this level of net annual interprovincial migratory losses is second only to what was seen in Quebec in 1977/1978 (-46,429) during a period marked by high levels of out-migration of the English-speaking minority.

Population by age and gender

• For the first time, the millennial generation (born from 1981 to 1996) comprises a greater number of people in the population than the baby boomer generation (born from 1946 to 1965).
• Generation Z (born from 1997 to 2012) has become the third-largest generation in Canada, now surpassing Generation X (born from 1966 to 1980).
• The recent rise of millennials and Generation X is largely due to the recent arrival of a record number of permanent and temporary immigrants, many of whom are millennials or members of Generation Z.
• For the first time since 1958, the average age of the Canadian population has fallen slightly, as the many recent immigrants are on average younger than the rest of the Canadian population.
• The number and proportion of people aged 65 and older have continued to rise, driven by the aging of the large baby boom cohorts.
• The proportion of the population aged 15 to 64 years has increased over the past year, reaching 65.7% on July 1, 2023, after having declined steadily from 2007 to 2022.
• Among all five-year age groups, the population grew the fastest in the 30-34 age group from July 1, 2022, to July 1, 2023. The rapid growth of this age group is explained by the arrival of many immigrants over the past year.
• For the first time in Canadian history, there were now more people aged 65 and older (7,568,308) than under 18 (7,497,048).
• The proportion of people aged 65 and older continued to rise, reaching 18.9% on July 1, 2023 (+0.1 percentage points compared to the previous year). This is due to the fact that population growth among those aged 65 and over (+3.6%) was higher than for the overall population (+2.9%) over the past year, despite sustained permanent and temporary immigration.
• At the provincial and territorial level, Newfoundland and Labrador was the province with the highest average age (45.7 years), while the lowest average age was recorded in Nunavut (29.1 years).

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