well we may not lead the G7 anymore but we Now lead the G8 in Growth...according to todays issue of the National Post:
Canada Census 2011: Canada leads G8 in growth, population hits 33.5 million
Canada’s population of 33.5 million people is growing faster than that of any other G8 nation — fuelled primarily by immigration — while the booming West continues to reshape this country’s demographic landscape, a new census has revealed.
The latest national headcount, released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, shows strong and steady growth in nearly every corner of a country that remains firmly in the grip of a westward shift in population power.
Up from 31.6 million at the time of the previous census in 2006, the Canadian population remains the smallest among the G8 but by far the fastest growing, with a 5.9 per cent growth rate in the past five years that not only exceeds the 4.4 per cent rise in the U.S., but also Canada’s own previous increase of 5.4 per cent between 2001 and 2006.
It’s clear, said University of Victoria census historian Peter Baskerville, “that the economy is shifting to Saskatchewan and Alberta in terms of resources, and manufacturing is declining in the central belt of Ontario and Quebec — that’s been going on for a lot of years.”
But even in parts of the country that couldn’t quite match the pace of growth witnessed in the Prairies, there were substantial increases in population, the census data shows.
British Columbia’s share of Canada’s population reached a new high of 13.1 per cent, with the province’s total residents up seven per cent to 4.4 million. Kelowna, which grew by 10.8 per cent since 2006, was the country’s fourth-fastest-growing city after Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon.
Ontario, despite being hit hard by the recession of 2008-09 and facing painful adjustments in the manufacturing sector — most notably the auto industry — increased its population to 12.9 million and its overall share of the country’s population to a highest-ever 38.4 per cent.
Two Ontario cities facing particularly hard economic times — Windsor and Thunder Bay — did experience population decreases, a rarity among Canada’s urban centres during a generally widespread period of growth, especially in major metropolitan areas.
And Quebec, while seeing its share of Canada’s population dip slightly to 23.6 per cent, actually accelerated its growth rate from 4.3 per cent in 2006 to 4.7 per cent in the latest census period. The province, which now has more than 7.9 million people, is also on pace to reach the eight-million milestone in the coming months.
Meanwhile, the same magnetic attraction that oil wealth appears to be having in Western Canada seems to be boosting the number of people moving to — and staying in — petroleum-rich Newfoundland and Labrador. Canada’s easternmost province, which had not recorded a period of population growth since 1986, notched its numbers up by 1.8 per cent to more than 250,000 people.
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island all had higher rates of population growth in the 2011 census than in the 2006 count.
Manitoba and the Yukon also experienced significant jumps in their growth rates because of influxes of immigrants.
Even though there’s been a slight increase in the number of Canadians classified as living in rural areas — agricultural districts, small towns beyond the orbit of larger centres and most of the northern territories — the much faster growth of cities has pushed the proportion of rural Canadians to a historic low of 18.9 per cent.
In contrast, more than one-third of all Canadians — 35 per cent of the population — now live in one of the country’s three largest cities: Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Each of those centres grew substantially over the past five years, the gains — once again — driven by the arrival of tens of thousands of immigrants.
As the single-most important factor affecting the size of Canada’s citizenry, the ongoing influx of newcomers to the country offers the promise of economic renewal and multicultural evolution but also presents major challenges in integrating and accommodating immigrant communities.
“I think Canadians are still quite supportive of immigration,” said Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies. “I think they understand — and this (census) will only reconfirm their understanding — that Canada needs immigration.”
But Jedwab, whose research in recent years has illuminated significant levels of concern among Canadians about immigration from Muslim nations, said, “the issue is going to be the sources of immigration, what countries people are coming from. That’s still going to be a source of concern in terms of issues of accommodation in Quebec, and integration, and we’ll continue to have debates about that.”
Source:
Canada Census 2011: Nation leads G8 in growth, population hits 33.5 million | News | National Post
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