Annual Demographic Estimates: Canada, Provinces and Territories, 2024

Highlights

Total population, July 1, 2024

• The population of Canada reached an estimated 41,288,599 on July 1, 2024. With a quarterly growth rate of 0.6%, this means that 250,229 people were added to the Canadian population from April 1 to July 1, 2024.
• This growth was slower than in the same quarter of 2023 (+334,606, +0.8%) and 2022 (+253,510, +0.7%) marking the first time since 2020 that quarterly growth has been slower than in the same quarter a year earlier.
• In the second quarter of 2024, there was a net increase of 117,836 non-permanent residents. This was the smallest net increase since the first quarter of 2023 (+97,845 people) and marks the third quarter in a row of smaller net increases in the number of non-permanent residents.
• From July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2024 (2023/2024), Canada’s population grew by 1,205,115 people (+3.0%).
• While the annual growth rate has been increasing since the low level seen at the start of the pandemic (+0.6% in 2020/2021, +211,226 people), the growth rate in 2023/2024 was only 0.1 percentage point higher than the growth in 2022/2023 (+2.9%, +1,147,550 people).
• Alberta saw the highest growth rate of all provinces and territories in 2023/2024 at +4.3%. Only Quebec (+2.3%), Ontario (+3.2%), Alberta (+4.3), and Nunavut (+1.1%) grew faster in 2023/2024 than in 2022/2023. Every province and territory experienced positive population growth in 2023/2024.
• On July 1, 2024, there were just over three million non-permanent residents living in Canada (3,002,090). This is a net increase of 775,091 people from July 1, 2023, and the second year in a row where the net increase in non-permanent residents was over 700,000 (+712,751 in 2022/2023). Previously, the annual net increase in non-permanent residents had only exceeded 200,000 once, which occurred in 2021/2022 (+208,689).
• In 2023/2024, Canada welcomed 464,265 immigrants, which was similar to the number of immigrants admitted in 2022/2023 (468,913) and in 2021/2022 (493,236).
• In the two years following the pandemic, there were an increased number of people who moved to another province or territory, totaling 348,777 in 2021/2022 and 343,079 in 2022/2023. The number of interprovincial migrants in 2023/2024 (306,756) was closer to, although still slightly above, pre-pandemic levels, which ranged from around 250,000 to around 305,000 from 2000/2001 to 2020/2021.
• Alberta had the biggest gains from other provinces and territories in 2023/2024 (+43,750 people), as it did in 2022/2023 (+39,408).
• The only other provinces or territories that had net gains from interprovincial migration were the four Atlantic provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador (+598 people), Prince Edward Island (+82 people), Nova Scotia (+2,252 people), and New Brunswick (+2,803 people). However, all four provinces had smaller net gains in 2023/2024 than they did in 2022/2023, which were themselves smaller than the net gains seen in 2021/2022.

Population by age and gender

• For the third year in a row, the median age in Canada decreased slightly (by -0.3 years), reaching 40.3 years on July 1, 2024, while the average age saw no change from July 1, 2023 (41.6 years). This contrasts with the general trend of an increasing median and average age from 1967 to 2021. The decrease in the median age and stability of the average age of the population is the result of high levels of international migration in recent years, as immigrants and non-permanent residents tend to be on average younger than Canada’s population.
• Between July 1, 2021, when higher levels of international migration began, and July 1, 2024, more than 1.1 million people have joined the millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) in Canada (1,109,591, +12.2%), with 416,583 joining in the past year (+4.4% increase from 2022/2023).
• During 2023/2024, among all age groups, the largest increase in number was in the age group of 30-34 (162,450 people, +5.3%) while the largest increase in percent was in the 20-24 age group (148,255 people, +5.6%).
• From July 1, 2023, those aged 0 to 14 years increased by 1.2% (+77,411 people) while those aged 15 to 64 years old increased by 3.2% (+865,310 people). People aged 65 and older increased by 3.4% (+262,394 people), mainly due to the aging of the large baby boomer cohorts.
• At the provincial and territorial level, Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest median (47.8 years) and average (45.7 years) age while the lowest median (26.8 years) and average (29.3 years) age was recorded in Nunavut.
• On July 1, 2024, there were 20,638,255 men and 20,650,344 women living in Canada. The ratio of the number of men to 100 women has varied little from the late 1980s to 2016, fluctuating between 98.0 and 98.5. This ratio reached 99.9 as of July 1, 2024.
• The recent increase in this ratio is due to the arrival of a significant number of non-permanent residents. Among non-permanent residents, there are 126.6 men for every 100 women and that ratio has varied from 126.6 to 133.1 since 2021.
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