Statistics Canada says population growth rate in 2023 was highest since 1957

Canada's population grew faster last year than it has at any time since the 1950s amid a surge in the number of temporary residents, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday.

The statistics agency says the population grew by 3.2 per cent in 2023, reaching 40,769,890 as of Jan. 1, 2024, the highest rate since 1957, when it grew 3.3 per cent.

Growth rates above three per cent have «never been see in a developed country» since the 1950s, said Frederic Payeur, a demographer at Quebec's provincial statistics agency, the Institut de la statistique du Quebec.

Canada's migration-driven increase is comparable to Israel's in the 1960s and Ireland's in 2006 and 2007 — when the country experienced an immigration boom during a period of rapid economic growth, he said. But even then, neither of those countries had population increases above three per cent.

In Quebec, where the population grew by 2.5 per cent, «our conclusion is that in absolute numbers, this is the most growth ever seen,» he said. «As a proportion of the population, in 1957, there was a bit more overall growth, but that was mainly due to the baby boom, combined with a wave of migration linked to events in Hungary.»

More than 37,000 Hungarian refugees fled to Canada after Soviet troops crushed an uprising against Communist rule in November 1956.

Across Canada, the population rose by 1,271,872 between Jan. 1, 2023 and Jan. 1, 2024. Statistics Canada says 97.6 per cent of that population growth was the result of immigration, with 471,771 immigrants settling in the country last year and the number of temporary residents — most of whom are foreign workers — rising by 804,901.

In Quebec, where the population grew by 218,000 people, almost 100 per cent of growth came from immigration,