By Canadian Press

Canada passes 40 million population milestone amid immigration push

Jun 16, 2023 | 1:08 PM

OTTAWA — Canada’s population has reached more than 40 million, Statistics Canada said.

The milestone comes amid a wave of new immigrants as part of Ottawa’s promise to bring in 500,000 people a year by 2025.

The 40-million mark came faster than expected, Statistics Canada said, as the country added 1.1 million people in 2022, most of them permanent and temporary immigrants.

That’s more than twice the federal government’s plan to welcome more than 430,000 new permanent residents last year.

Last year was the first year Canada’s population grew by more than a million people in a 12-month period, Statistics Canada said, with 95.9 per cent of that growth through international migration.

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Canada’s population passed 30 million in 1997, also amid increasing immigration levels.

By comparison, the U.S. population is around 335 million.

Statistics Canada said that if current immigration levels remain, Canada’s population could hit 50 million in two decades. And by 2041, two in five Canadians could be born abroad.

Ontario is Canada’s most populous province with almost 15.6 million people, while Quebec comes a distant second at 8.8 million.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2023.

The Canadian Press