Population

As of the latest population census in 2006, Canada had 31,612,897 inhabitants. Distributed evenly over the entire area of this large country, that makes for an average of 3.2 people per square kilometre. In contrast, Germany’s population density is 230 individuals per square kilometre.

However, the majority of Canadians live in the metropolitan centres. As of 2006 approximately 25 million Canadians lived in cities: more than four fifths of the total population. 45 % of all Canadians live in the six urban centres with a population of more than 1 million: Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa-Gatineau, Calgary and Edmonton.

Today the Canadian population continues to grow predominantly through immigration. Between 2001 and 2006, two-thirds of the population growth could be attributed to that factor. Overall, the population grew by 5.4 percent, making it the highest growth rate of the G-8 countries.

Among the provinces, the largest growth in population was in the Northwest Territories (11%) followed by the province of Alberta which is experiencing a booming economy (10.6%) and by the territory of Nunavut (10.2%). Much of Alberta’s growth is due to the migration of Canadians from different provinces and territories in Canada, whereas Ontario (6.6%) receives the majority of immigrants to Canada. The youngest overall population in Canada is found in Nunavut, which has an average age of just 23.1 years, far lower than the Canadian national average of 39.5 years.

Canada is among the most popular countries for immigration. This popularity has increased the ethnic and cultural diversity of the country, especially since the liberalization of immigration policies in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2006, the proportion of the population which was not Canadian-born was, at 20 percent, the highest it has been for 75 years, putting Canada ahead of the United States (12.5 percent) and just behind Australia (22.2 percent). Over the years, immigrants to Canada have come from varying regions of the world. In 2006 the number of immigrants coming from Asia and the Middle East reached almost 41 percent, for the first time in history outnumbering immigrants coming from Europe, who make up 37 percent. Since 2001, the main countries of origin for new immigrants have been China and India.

Within the last fifty years the population of Canada has almost doubled. At the same time, it has become more ethnically and culturally diverse and has in fact, become one of the most multicultural countries in the world.

Source: Statistics Canada