Canada’s population is growing at an annual rate unseen since the baby boomer era.
This year the annual population growth hit a record high of 40.77 million largely due to immigration. The last time Canada saw its population grow at this rate was in 1957.
Canada gained 1.27 million people in 2023, up by 3.2% from 2022, marking the largest single-year increase in nearly 70 years, according to data from Statistics Canada.
Despite this the massive influx of immigrants has driven down gross domestic product per capita leading to a decline in productivity levels.
“In 2023, the vast majority (97.6%) of Canada’s population growth came from international migration (both permanent and temporary immigration) and the remaining portion (2.4%) came from natural increase,” StatCan said in a statement.
“This was the second straight year that temporary immigration drove population growth and the third year in a row with a net increase of NPRs (non-permanent residents),” it said.
Nearly a quarter of Canada’s population has been born outside of the country since 2021, with Canada hosting the largest cohort of non-native residents of any G7 nation.
However, Canadians’ attitudes towards mass immigration have started to change in recent months, with polls revealing that many think that the Trudeau government’s current immigration targets are too high.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s popularity amongst Canadians has steadily been in decline for some time, with his administration’s immigration targets often being cited as a reason by those dissatisfied with his performance.
Additionally, Canada is facing a major housing shortage, which many link to the mass influx of newcomers, especially temporary foreign workers and international students.
A recent Leger poll conducted last fall found that 75% of Canadians believed that high immigration levels were contributing to the housing shortage. Statistics Canada estimates that 2,661,784 non-permanent residents were living in Canada as of January 1, 2024. Within that cohort, 2,332,886 were permit holders that lived with family members and 328,998 were asylum claimants, with or without study or work permits.