Canada's population growth second in G8

By TERRY WEBER

Wednesday, September 28, 2005 Posted at 12:13 PM EDT

Globe and Mail Update

Canada's population grew faster than nearly all of its major industrialized counterparts over the past decade, topped only by the United States, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

From 1994 to 2004, the Canadian population grew at a rate of 1 per cent – the second fastest pace among the Group of 8 nations.

The United States ranked first with growth of 1.1 per cent over that period.

“Because of the contribution of migration, Canadian population growth kept pace with that of the United States,” Statscan said.

“Whereas U.S. growth was primarily due to a high rate of natural increase, the growth of the Canadian population was largely and increasingly due to its net international migration.”

Of the G8 countries, only Russia reported a decline in population over the 10-year span, Statscan said.

The government agency said Canada's rate of natural increase was 0.39 per cent and was exceeded only by the United States, which had a rate of 0.58 per cent during the same period.

The rate of natural increase is calculated by subtracting the number of deaths from the number of births over a specific period of time.

Canada's fertility rate was 1.5 children per woman, fourth among the G8 countries. Life expectancy in Canada, the agency said, was similar to that seen in the eight other countries.

Of the G8 countries, only Germany, Italy and Russia currently have more deaths than births. Statscan said that situation should not develop in this country 2025 if trends seen in recent years continue.

When it came to immigration, however, Canada ranked first among G8 nations during the study period, with a net international migration rate of 0.61 per cent. (That rate represents the change in population between two dates when the number of people who leave the country are subtracted from the number of immigrants.)

The net international migration rate was positive across all the G8 nations, although its level varied.

“The United States followed Canada with a net international migration rate of 0.52 per cent, and three countries – Germany, United Kingdom and the Russian Federation – posted migratory growth rates just above the 0.20 per cent level,” Statscan said in Wednesday's report.

“Japan and France brought up the rear with slightly positive net migration.”

According to census estimates also released Wednesday, Canada's headcount rose by 0.93 per cent between July 1, 2004, and July 1, 2005.

That put the nation's total population at 32,270,500.

The growth rate was slightly below that seen in the two previous years.

Over the 12-month period, Statscan said, Canada received 244,600 immigrants, 5,500 more than in the previous year. More than half of those people chose Ontario as their new home.

Among the provinces and territories, Alberta recorded the fastest population growth in 2004-2005, adding 52,000 new residents to bring the total population to 3,256,800. Statscan linked Alberta's increase to the impact of rising oil prices and job growth in the oil patch.

Last year, Alberta took in 17,400 international immigrants. That's the highest annual increase since 1993-1994, when it received 18,200 new residents from abroad.

British Columbia, Ontario and Nunavut all reported growth rates above the national level in 2004-2005.

Small population losses were seen in Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.

It's amazing how all the developed nations need to get immigrants to keep their population intact. Less than 1% natural increase, astounding!

^^Makes sense though. As a country develops, costs of living goes up. As cost of living goes up, it is more expensive to raise a child. Therefore, families have less children. In the developing world, it is very cheap to raise a child, however the mortality rate is much higher. Therefore they have more kids, but more of them die prematurely.
If the whole world ever become developed and the idea of 3rd world countries was a thing of the past, we would probably finally see a levelling off of the worlds explosive population growth.

^^ I'd agree that if more developing countries became developed like Canada, Australia and Western Europe, we'd see a leveling off of world population growth. And I think this is increasingly becoming the case with Southeast Asia, India and China for sure. I just hope they don't end up failing on the way. If I remember correctly, at the dawn of the 20th Century, Argentina and probably Chile had a higher standard of living overall than Canada had at the time. But unfortunately, those Latin American countries were caught up in serious problems of their own, such as dictatorships and hyperinflation and all that. This resulted in where they are today compared to Canada, although I hear they had both been doing very well economically until fairly recently. In fact, I think Chile had one of the the fastest economic growth of any LatAm countries in the 1990s, if not the fastest. However, one has to understand that this is all relative, obviously given the breakneck pace of technological and medical advances in the last 100 years.

Now...it'll be very interesting to see what the 21st Century will hold for us and the world in general. Especially with China and India.

I would actually like the global population to decrease. There's just not enough resources on this planet to offer 6 billion people the quality and standard of life that is enjoyed by North Americans.

I would actually like the global population to decrease. There's just not enough resources on this planet to offer 6 billion people the quality and standard of life that is enjoyed by North Americans.

exactly... just wait till everyone in china and india demand their own gas guzzling SUVs... then see the deep shit the world will be in. (its already happening...)