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Total population

  1. On July 1, 2016, Canada’s population was estimated at 36,286,425, up 437,815 (+1.2%) in the past year (2015/2016).
  2. In absolute numbers, Canada’s population growth in the past year was the largest since 1988/1989 (+485,034).
  3. Population growth in Canada remained the strongest among G7 countries.
  4. In 2015/2016, net international migration was responsible for 71.7% of the population growth in Canada.
  5. Canada has never registered such high net international migration as in the past year (+313,925) since the beginning of the period covered by the current demographic accounting system (July 1971).
  6. Canada received 320,932 immigrants in the past year. The country had not received as many immigrants in a single annual period since the early 1910s, during the settlement of Western Canada.
  7. The population growth rate in the past year was the strongest in Alberta (+1.7%) and Manitoba (+1.7%).
  8. Compared with 2014/2015, population growth in the past year increased in all provinces except Alberta.
  9. Over the past year, all the provinces received more immigrants than in 2014/2015, and six received a record number: Newfoundland and Labrador (1,406), Nova Scotia (5,390), New Brunswick (4,435), Manitoba (17,238), Saskatchewan (15,006) and Alberta (57,384).
  10. Alberta registered interprovincial migration losses (-2,877) in 2015/2016 for the first time since 2009/2010.
  11. British Columbia had the strongest interprovincial migration gains in Canada (+23,260). Newfoundland and Labrador (+271) and Ontario (+6,154) were the only two other provinces to not see any interprovincial migration losses.

Population by age and sex

  1. On July 1, 2016, 5,990,511 Canadians, or nearly one in six (16.5%) persons was at least 65 years of age. The gap widened compared with 5,831,649 children aged 0 to 14 (16.1%).
  2. Baby-boomers were making up more than one-third (35.7%) of persons aged 65 and older. This proportion was 30.2% the past year. On July 1, 2016, individuals in the baby boom generation were between 50 and 70 years of age.
  3. In 2016, one in two Canadians was at least 40.6 years of age. The median age has increased by 10 years since 1984, when it was 30.6 years.
  4. The median age was higher for females (41.5 years) than for males (39.7 years).
  5. On July 1, 2016, there were 48.3 children (0 to 14 years) or seniors (65 years and older) per 100 working-age persons (15 to 64 years). The demographic dependency ratio has been rising steadily since 2007 (43.9)
  6. Among G7 countries, Canada currently has one of the lowest proportions of people aged 65 and older.
  7. On July 1, 2016, New Brunswick was the province with the largest proportion of people aged 65 and older (19.5%), while Nunavut had the lowest proportion (4.0%).
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