Canada’s population has increased by 5% over the course of 2011 to 2016, in other words, by 1.7 million people in just 5 years.
CANADA — Canada’s population has been growing by roughly 1% every single year, for the past half-decade.
The country’s population had just hit 20 million people when Canadians were celebrating Canada’s 100th anniversary of Confederation (in 1967).
Roughly 100 years prior to that 100th year anniversary, the population of Canada stood at 3.5 million; 1/10th of what it is today.
Interesting fact: Canadians have slowly been making their way in the western provinces, decade after decade. In the early years of Canada’s existence, most Canadians stuck to living in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
2/3rd’s of the nation’s population growth is due to increased amounts of immigration into the country, whereas the other 1/3rd comes from child birth after taking away number of deaths.
Interesting fact: Although the population density of Canada as a whole sits at just 3.9 people per square kilometer, if you take into account that 66% of the entire country’s population resides 100 kilometers from the Canada-United States border, there are some Canadian municipalities that have a population density as high as 5,000 people (or more) per square kilometer, including Vancouver, British Columbia with 5,400 people per square kilometer, and Montreal-Westmount, Quebec with 5,025.
ATLANTIC — In 1966, 10% of Canadians were living in the Atlantic provinces. This has changed rather drastically today, as only 6.6% of Canadians live there now. The Atlantic provinces include Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island.
CENTRAL — In 2016’s census results, Ontario and Quebec accounted for 61.5% of Canada’s entire population. Ontario’s population has remained the most populous province, with 13.4 million people calling it home, taking 38.3% of Canada’s population.
Last year’s census results were the first time that Quebec has surpassed 8 million people.
PRAIRIES — For the first time since joining Confederation, all three western/prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan & Manitoba) reported the highest rates from 2011 to 2016 compared to the previous period.
The province of Alberta had the fastest growth rate, recorded at 11.6% over the course of the past 5 years.
Interesting fact: The population of the entire world grew from 5 billion in 1987, to 7.5 billion in 2017. In just 30 years, the global population has risen by 2.5 billion people – that of which is the equivalent of Canada’s population last year (35 million), multiplied 71 times over.
If you’re interested in learning more (a lot more), have a look at the official Statistics Canada release.