Population of Canada

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Canada population density map (2014)
Top left: The Quebec City–Windsor Corridor is the most densely inhabited and heavily industrialized region accounting for nearly 50 percent of the total population<ref name="McMurryShepherd2004">Template:Cite book</ref>

Canada ranks 37th by population among countries of the world, comprising about 0.5% of the world's total,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with about 41.5 million Canadians as of 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Despite being the second-largest country by total area (fourth-largest by land area), the vast majority of the country is sparsely inhabited, with most of its population south of the 55th parallel north. Just over 60 percent of Canadians live in just two provinces: Ontario and Quebec. Though Canada's overall population density is low, many regions in the south, such as the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, have population densities higher than several European countries. Canada has six population centres with more than one million people: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa.

The large size of Canada's north, which is currently not arable, and thus cannot support large human populations, significantly lowers the country's carrying capacity. In 2021, the population density of Canada was 4.2 people per square kilometre.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The historical growth of Canada's population is complex and has been influenced in many different ways, such as Indigenous populations, expansion of territory, and human migration. Immigration has been, and remains, the most important factor in Canada's population growth.<ref name=hrdsc>Template:Cite web</ref> The 2021 Canadian census counted a total population of 36,991,981, an increase of around 5.2 per cent over the 2016 figure.<ref name=jpctv>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=census16>Template:Cite web</ref> Between 1990 and 2008, the population increased by 5.6 million, equivalent to 20.4 per cent overall growth.<ref name=oee>Template:Cite web</ref>

Historical population overview

Indigenous peoples

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A map of Canada showing the percent of self-reported Indigenous identity (First Nations, Inuit, Métis) by census division, according to the 2021 Canadian census<ref name="Statistics Canada 2022 u867">Template:Cite web</ref>

A variety of estimations have been postulated for the Indigenous population in what is now Canada prior to European contact.<ref name="HainesSteckela">Template:Cite book</ref> Estimates of this population during the late 15th century range between 200,000<ref name="NorthcottWilson2008"/> and two million,<ref name="HainesSteckel2000">Template:Cite book</ref> with a figure of 500,000 currently accepted by Canada's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.<ref name="BaileySturtevant2008">Template:Cite book</ref> Although not without conflict, European Canadians' early interactions with First Nations and Inuit populations were relatively peaceful.<ref name="Preston2009a">Template:Cite book</ref> However repeated outbreaks of European infectious diseases such as influenza, measles and smallpox (to which they had no natural immunity),<ref name="DeanMatthews1998sw">Template:Cite book</ref> combined with other effects of European contact, resulted in a twenty-five per cent to eighty per cent Indigenous population decrease post-contact.<ref name="NorthcottWilson2008">Template:Cite book</ref> Roland G Robertson suggests that during the late 1630s, smallpox killed over half of the Wyandot (Huron), who controlled most of the early North American fur trade in the area of New France.<ref name="Robertson2001">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1822 the Indigenous Canadian population, excluding the Métis, was estimated as 283,500 people.<ref name="Hassel">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1871 there was an enumeration of the Indigenous population within the limits of Canada at the time, showing a total of only 102,358 individuals.<ref name=aboriginal/> In 1885 the number of Indigenous people in Canada was reported as 131,952 individuals.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> From 2006 to 2016, the Indigenous population has grown by 42.5 per cent, four times the national rate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Indigenous population representing 5 percent or 1.8 million individuals, grew by 9.4 percent compared to the non-Indigenous population, which grew by 5.3 percent from 2016 to 2021.<ref name="Statistics Canada 2023 a9091">Template:Cite web</ref> The 2021 Census data reveals that there are over 1.8 million Indigenous people in Canada, comprising 5.0% of the overall Canadian population, a slight increase from 4.9% in 2016.<ref name="t481">Template:Cite web</ref>

New France

Template:Further The European population grew slowly under French rule,<ref name="Preston2009b">Template:Cite book</ref> thus remained relatively low as growth was largely achieved through natural births, rather than by immigration.<ref name="Powell2009">Template:Cite book</ref> Most of the French were farmers, and the rate of natural increase among the settlers themselves was very high.<ref name="McIlwraithMuller2001">Template:Cite book</ref> The women had about 30 per cent more children than comparable women who remained in France.<ref name=Landry/> Demographer Yves Landry says, "Canadians had an exceptional diet for their time."<ref name=Landry>Template:Cite journal</ref> The 1666 census of New France was the first census conducted in North America.<ref name=new>Template:Cite web</ref> It was organized by Jean Talon, the first Intendant of New France, between 1665 and 1666.<ref name=new/> According to Talon's census there were 3,215 people in New France, comprising 538 separate families.<ref name=Talon>Template:Cite web</ref> The census showed a great difference in the number of men at 2,034 versus 1,181 women.<ref name=Talon/> By the early 1700s the New France settlers were well established along the Saint Lawrence River and Acadian Peninsula with a population around 15,000 to 16,000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Mainly due to natural increase and modest immigration from Northwest France (Brittany, Normandy, Île-de-France, Poitou-Charentes and Pays de la Loire) the population of New France increased to 55,000 according to the last French census of 1754.<ref name="Leslie1988a">Template:Cite book</ref> This was an increase from 42,701 in 1730.<ref name="Hartz1969">Template:Cite book</ref>

British Canada

Distribution of the population in Canada for the years 1851, 1871, 1901, 1921 and 1941

During the late 18th and early 19th century Canada under British rule experienced strong population growth. In the wake of the 1775 invasion of Canada by the newly formed Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, approximately 60,000 of the 80,000 Americans loyal to the Crown, designated later as United Empire Loyalists fled to British North America, a large portion of whom migrated to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (separated from Nova Scotia) in 1784.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Although the exact numbers cannot be certain because of unregistered migration<ref>Jasanoff, p. 357</ref> At least 20,000 went to Nova Scotia, 14,000 to New Brunswick; 1,500 to PEI and 6,000 to Ontario(13,000 including 5,000 blacks went to England and 5,500 to the Caribbean). For the rest of the 1780s additional immigrants arrived from the south. From 1791 An additional 30,000 Americans, called "Late Loyalists", were lured into Ontario in the 1790s by the promise of land and swearing loyalty to the Crown.<ref name="MurrinJohnson2008">Template:Cite book</ref> As a result of the period known as the Great Migration by 1831, Lower Canada's population had reached approximately 553,000, with Upper Canada reaching about 237,000 individuals.<ref name="ReclusRavenstein1893">Template:Cite book</ref> The Great Famine of Ireland of the 1840s had significantly increased the pace of Irish immigration to Prince Edward Island and the Province of Canada, peaking in 1847 with 100,000 distressed individuals.<ref name="MacKay2009">Template:Cite book</ref> By 1851, the population of the Maritime colonies also reached roughly 533,000 (277,000 in Nova Scotia, 194,000 in New Brunswick and 62,000 in Prince Edward Island).<ref name="Rea1991">Template:Cite book</ref> To the west British Columbia had about 55,000 individuals by 1851.<ref name="Rea1991"/> Beginning in the late 1850s, the immigration of Chinese into the Colony of Vancouver Island and Colony of British Columbia peaked with the onset of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush.<ref name="HallM.2001">Template:Cite book</ref> By 1861, as a result of natural births and the Great Migration of Canada from the British Isles, the Province of Canada population increased to 3.1 million inhabitants.<ref name="Rea1991"/> Newfoundland's population by 1861 reached approximately 125,000 individuals.<ref name="Rea1991"/>

Post-confederation

The population has increased every year since the establishment of the Dominion of Canada in 1867; however, the population of Newfoundland was not included prior to its entry into confederation as Canada's tenth province in 1949.<ref name=popchart>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Development/> The first national census of the country was taken in 1871, with a population count around 3,689,000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The year with the least population growth (in real terms) was 1882–1883, when only 30,000 new individuals were enumerated.<ref name=Development/>

Births and immigration in Canada from 1850 to 2000

The 1911 census was a detailed enumeration of the population showing a count of 7,206,643 individuals.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This was an increase of 34% over the 1901 census of 5,371,315.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The year with the most population growth was during the peak of the Post-World War II baby boom in 1956–1957, when the population grew by over 529,000, in a single twelve-month period.<ref name=Development/> The Canadian baby boom, defined as the period from 1947 to 1966, saw more than 400,000 babies born annually.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The 1996 census recorded a total population of 28,846,761.<ref name=dwelling>Template:Cite web</ref> This was a 5.7% increase over the 1991 census of 27,296,859.<ref name=dwelling/> The 2001 census had a total population count of 30,007,094.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In contrast, the official Statistics Canada population estimate for 2001 was 31,021,300.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Canada's total population enumerated by the 2006 census was 31,612,897.<ref name="Differences between Statistics Canada's census counts and population estimates"/> This count was lower than the official 1 July 2006 population estimate of 32,623,490 people.<ref name="Differences between Statistics Canada's census counts and population estimates">Template:Cite web</ref> Ninety per cent of the population growth between 2001 and 2006 was concentrated in the main metropolitan areas.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The 2011 census was the fifteenth decennial census with a total population count of 33,476,688, up 5.9% from 2006. On average, censuses have been taken every five years since 1905. Censuses are required to be taken at least every ten years as mandated in section 8 of the Constitution Act, 1867.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Components of population growth

A population estimate for 2022 put the total number of people in Canada at 38,232,593.<ref name="cia.gov">Template:Citation</ref>

Demographic statistics according to the World Population Review in 2022.<ref name="WPR 2022">Template:Citation</ref>

  • One birth every 1 minute
  • One death every 2 minutes
  • One net migrant every 2 minutes
  • Net gain of one person every 2 minutes
File:Canada's fertility rate from 1929 to 2019.png
Canada's fertility rate from 1929 to 2019. The rate fell below two in the 1970s.

In 2010, Canada's annual population growth rate was 1.238%, or a daily increase of 1,137 individuals.<ref name=Development>Template:Cite web</ref> Between 1867 and 2009 Canada's population grew by 979%.<ref name=Development/> Canada had the highest net migration rate (0.61%) of all G-8 member countries between 1994 and 2004.<ref name=Development/> Natural growth accounts for an annual increase of 137,626 persons, at a yearly rate of 0.413%.<ref name=Development/> Between 2001 and 2006, there were 1,446,080 immigrants and 237,418 emigrants, resulting in a net migration of just over 1.2 million people.<ref name=Development/> Since 2001 until 2010, immigration has ranged between 221,352 and 262,236 immigrants per annum.<ref name=CIC1>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2023, Canada's population jumped by over 1 million people for the first time in the country's history. The population growth was largely fuelled by migrants who were brought to the country to ease labour shortages.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As of April 2025, the estimated population of Canada is 41,548,787 people.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Clear

Population by years

Prior to Canadian Confederation in 1867 the population counts reflected only the former colonies and settlements and not the country to be as a whole with Indigenous nations separated.<ref name=overview>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ephemeral European settlements

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Former colonies and territories

The first in date of the Colonies which became successful, and which consequently marked the starting point of European settlements on what would be Canada, was the foundation of Port Royal, Acadia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> List of censuses.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="b844">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Sticky header

18th century

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19th century

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Canada as a whole since confederation

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Census data by years

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Data projections

In 2006, Statistics Canada projected for the decade 2021 to 2031 the population to grow by more than 5 million, or more than 10%.<ref name=dpsc/> Between 1990 and 2008, the population increased by 5.6 million, equivalent to 20.4 per cent overall growth.<ref name=oee/> The 2016 Canadian census counted a total population of 35.1 million,<ref name=jpctv/> or 1.5 million under the 2006 projection.

In October 2020, the Trudeau government announced its plans to bring in more than 1.2 million immigrants over the subsequent three years, to catch up to the high-growth scenario.<ref name="khcbc">Template:Cite news</ref>

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Modern population distribution

File:Population density per province by Canada gradient map (2021).svg
Population density of Canadian provinces and territories, 2021 Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend

By province and territory

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By cities and municipalities

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First Nations

See also

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Notes

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References

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Further reading

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