Statistics Canada said that during the year 2023, the number of people who left the province of British Columbia in western Canada to settle in other provinces and territories exceeded the number of those who arrived there from those provinces and territories.

The federal agency pointed out that British Columbia recorded a demographic loss in interprovincial and territorial migration during five consecutive quarters.

Between July 2022 and September 2023, the largest province in western Canada recorded a net loss of more than 12,800 residents.

In the third quarter of 2023, from July to September, British Columbia lost a net total of 4,634 people who left it for other Canadian provinces and territories.

British Columbia had not recorded such a loss in interprovincial migration since early 2013.

However, the population of British Columbia increased during the mentioned five quarters thanks to international migration that exceeded the losses in interprovincial migration.

By the end of 2023, the province's population is expected to reach 5.6 million people, an increase of 4.2% over a full year.

This is the most important statistic according to the Minister of Housing in the British Columbia government, Ravi Kahlon.

Nevertheless, retaining the third largest of Canada's ten provinces by population of people coming to settle there may present certain challenges for its government.

Both the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Economic Development in British Columbia indicated the necessity to provide housing, healthcare, education, and other essential services to the province’s residents as well as its newcomers.

A large number of those leaving British Columbia head to its eastern neighbor Alberta, the only Canadian province that recorded a clear gain in interprovincial and territorial migration, amounting to 17,000 people in the third quarter of this year.

These figures come in the context of recent data released by Statistics Canada, which stated that Canada's population is now estimated at about 40,528,396 people, an increase of 430,635 people during the third quarter of 2023, or 1.1% compared to the population at the end of the second quarter of this year.