OTTAWA – Canada’s population has surpassed 35 million over the past year, a 1.2 per cent increase with growth generally higher in the western provinces, according to Statistics Canada, reported CBC News. The information is contained in the agency’s population estimates released Thursday morning.
Canada’s population is estimated at 35,158,300, an increase of 404,000 over the last year. The 1.2 per cent increase is the same as the previous year’s and similar to the annual growth in the country over the last three decades. “Except for the period between 1986 and 1990 [when it was higher], the population growth rate has shown little variation in 30 years, ranging from 0.8 per cent to 1.2 per cent,” the report said.
Growth in the last year exceeded the national level in Alberta (up 3.4 per cent), Nunavut (2.5 per cent) and Saskatchewan (1.9 per cent). Statistics Canada said the growth in Alberta was due to record levels of international migration and people arriving from other provinces.
Meanwhile, population growth in the last year was lower in the Atlantic provinces, with Nova Scotia’s population declining by half a per cent. In the Atlantic provinces, the lower growth was due to a combination of out-migration and a low ratio of births to deaths, the agency said.
