Statistics Canada released the first results of the 2021 census on Wednesday. This is the 23and census carried out in the country. The exercise, which occurs every five years, paints a portrait of the Canadian population by providing valuable information that helps decision-making for governments, businesses and organizations. In the latter, produced in the context of a pandemic, we learn in particular that the population has continued to grow in the country, largely thanks to immigration.
• Read also: The demographic weight of Quebec continues to decline
Three Quebec regions are losing feathers
The attraction to wide open spaces during the pandemic was not enough to curb the demographic decline in three regions of Quebec, especially in the East.
Over five years, the population decline is -4.3% on the North Shore, -1.1% in Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine and -0.3% in Saguenay–Lac- Saint-Jean, while Abitibi-Témiscamingue (+0.2%) and Bas-Saint-Laurent (+0.8%) essentially stood still.
The Laurentians (+7.9%), Lanaudière (+6.8%), Estrie and Outaouais (5.9% each) are the regions where the increase is the strongest.
As elsewhere in Canada, urban sprawl continues and municipalities located near urban centers are popular.
Thus, Saint-Apollinaire, 30 minutes from Quebec City, is the Quebec municipality of more than 5,000 inhabitants that has posted the strongest growth in the province, and the fourth highest in the country, while its population has increased from 6,110 in 2016. to 7,968 in 2021 (+30.4%).
As for large Quebec cities, Montreal has 1,762,949 inhabitants in 2021, while Quebec City has 549,459, increases of 3.4 and 3.3% respectively, which are slightly below the provincial average.
Nearly 37 million inhabitants
Canada has nearly 37 million inhabitants (36,991,981), which represents 1.8 million (+5.2%) more than at the last census in 2016.
This is an increase almost twice as fast as that of other G7 countries, from 2016 to 2021. Most of the increase occurred before the pandemic. In 2019, the population grew by a record 583,000 people, or 1.6%.
As for the population of Quebec, it now stands at 8,501,833 inhabitants, up 4.1% compared to 2016.
According to Patrick Charbonneau, senior analyst at Statistics Canada’s Center for Demography, the average population growth rate in Quebec per year is around 0.8%, compared to just 0.2% in 2020. , in the midst of a pandemic.
“We see that the population growth in Quebec, during the pandemic, was about four times lower,” he said.
The contribution of immigrants
Much of the population growth is attributable to more people arriving from all over the world.
Of the 1.8 million people who have come to swell the ranks of Canada’s population since 2016, four out of five people had immigrated to the country. The remaining fifth was attributable to natural increase, that is, the number of births minus the number of deaths.
Although the pandemic has slowed the movement of people around the world, immigration still contributed to Canada’s population increase of 0.4% in 2020.
By comparison, the population of the United States increased by 0.1%, from 1er July 2020 to 1er July 2021.
Quebec’s weight continues to decline
Second most populous province, Quebec sees its demographic weight in Canada decrease for an 11and subsequent census.
Its weight has increased from 23.2% in 2016 to 23.0% in 2021, even if the growth of its population (4.1% over five years) has accelerated compared to the previous survey.
Most of the growth is attributable to international migration before the pandemic, notes Statistics Canada.
By comparison, nearly two in five Canadians (38.5%) live in Ontario, where population growth is 5.8%.
The Yukon is the territory with the strongest population increase in the country (+12.1%).
Among the provinces, Prince Edward Island ranks first (+8%) while Newfoundland and Labrador (-1.8%) is the only one to have seen its population decrease from 2016 to 2021.
On the other hand, for the first time since the 1940s, the population of the Maritimes grew at a faster rate than that of the Prairie provinces.
Declining fertility
The rate of natural increase decreased from 0.3% in 2016 to 0.1% in 2021, which corresponds to the lowest level ever recorded.
Although Canada’s rate of natural increase is low, Statistics Canada does not expect it to become negative (more deaths than births) over the next 50 years, unlike most other countries in the G7.
The populations of Italy and Japan are already declining due to more deaths than births and low immigration rates.
Before the pandemic, fertility in Canada had been declining since 2015 and hit a record low of 1.4 children per woman in 2020.
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Reference-www.journaldequebec.com