Section 6: Conclusion
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The results of these projections differ from the preceding edition, as they highlight the recent changes that point to substantial population growth in the future, in keeping with the recent rise in fertility and the more long-standing increase in international immigration. In fact, according to the medium-growth scenario, the Canadian population should continue to grow in the next fifty years, at an average annual rate of 8.6 per thousand. While lower than the growth rate recorded during the period 1981 to 2009 (11.0 per thousand), this rate is higher than the rate projected by the medium-growth scenario of the preceeding edition (2.4 per thousand). Moreover, the Canadian population would not decrease in any of the projection scenarios, which is another difference from the preceeding edition.
Nevertheless, these changes would not be large enough to alter some trends that began some time ago, such as the aging of the population, the unequal growth of the provinces and territories or the increasing importance of immigration in population growth. It seems likely that in the future, these trends will continue to pose some challenges for Canada.
Finally, the 2008 United Nations projections indicate that the G8 countries might follow quite different paths in the future. In those projections, Italy, Germany, Japan and Russia would experience substantial population declines by the year 2050. Conversely, the United States, France and the United Kingdom, like Canada, would see their populations continue to grow until at least 2050.
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