Thanks to immigrants, Canada is likely to be one of the fastest-growing countries in the world between July 2022 and July 2023, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

Canada's population surpassed 40 million on June 16, growing to 40,097,761 by July 1, an increase of 1,158,705 people, or 2.9 percent from July 1, 2022.

According to a demographic report released on Tuesday, Statistics Canada said this growth rate makes Canada outpace all other G7 countries and place among the twenty fastest-growing countries in the world during that period.

While the difference between births and deaths accounts for 2% of this growth, the agency said that 98% came from net international migration. In fact, Canada's fertility rate reached a record low in 2022, with 1.33 children per woman, compared to 1.44 in 2021.

The report stated, “As of July 1, 2023, there were an estimated 2,198,679 non-permanent residents living in Canada, an increase of 46 percent over the same date a year earlier, representing the largest annual increase in the number of non-permanent residents living in Canada since comparable data became available.”

The report highlights that increases in work and study permits accounted for most of the change over the past year, aligning with government plans to settle more immigrants to help address labor shortages across various sectors. Immigration targets will increase each year over the next three years, according to the 2023-2025 federal immigration levels plan presented on November 1, 2022. The goal is to bring in 465,000 new permanent residents this year, 485,000 in 2024, and 500,000 in 2025.

In March of this year, the federal government allowed graduates with expired or recently expired work permits to obtain an additional or extended work permit to stay in Canada and gain work experience for up to 18 months. At that time, around 127,000 post-graduation work permits were set to expire in 2023.

Among the 2.2 million non-permanent residents recorded by July, there are also tens of thousands of Ukrainians who were able to move to Canada under the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization, which was launched in March 2022 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

This year's figures also reflect a change in how Statistics Canada counts non-permanent residents, as the agency implemented a new methodology this year in an attempt to improve record-keeping accuracy after a CIBC Capital Markets report stated that it was undercounting the actual number of non-permanent residents by nearly one million people.

The estimated number of temporary migrants in Canada now surpasses the 1.8 million indigenous people recorded during the 2021 census. This is the last time Canada experienced such a relative growth over a 12-month period in 1957 during the Hungarian refugee crisis, as well as at the peak of the baby boom. However, the increase in absolute numbers last year is more than double the increase recorded in 1957.

According to the report, "if the population growth rate we saw last year remains constant in the future, Canada's population will double in 25 years."

Statistics indicate that from July 2022 to July 2023, Alberta witnessed the fastest demographic growth among all provinces and territories, at four percent, coinciding with the advertising campaign launched by the Alberta government titled "Alberta is Calling," which was launched in August 2022 aimed at attracting people to the prairie province.

The report stated that "this growth was not only due to international migration but was also a result of record net gains from interprovincial migration exchanges."

During this period, the number of people moving into the province exceeded the number of people moving out by 56,245, representing the highest annual net gain ever recorded among the provinces for any single province or territory since data collection began in 1971.

Each of the maritime provinces recorded a population growth of at least three percent, with Prince Edward Island's growth rate at 3.9 percent, followed by Nova Scotia at 3.2 percent and New Brunswick at 3.1 percent.

Additionally, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec experienced increases in their populations at rates not seen since record-keeping began, though their growth rates were lower than those in Alberta and the maritime provinces.

The populations of Ontario and British Columbia increased by three percent, while Manitoba's population grew by 2.9 percent, and Saskatchewan's population increased by 2.6 percent.

While population growth reached a record level this year, Quebec experienced the second-lowest growth among all provinces at 2.3 percent, ahead of Newfoundland and Labrador, where the population grew by 1.3 percent.

As of July 1, Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia had the largest numbers of non-permanent residents, with nearly one million people living in Ontario, nearly half a million in Quebec and about 400,000 in British Columbia.