TORONTO – Canada has seen record breaking population growth last year, in what appears to be the direct result of pro-immigration policies.
According to the official statistics, the country’s population grew by over a million last year, first time since 1957 due to multiple reasons with immigration being the prominent one.
Statistics Canada, the government census agency, said on Wednesday that the population has reached 39.5 million after the recent growth which marks the first 12-month period in ‘Canada’s history where population grew by over one million people’.
The 2.7-percent population growth was the highest since 1957, when the country saw a 3.3 percent spike in its population, due to multiple factors including post-World War II baby boom and a jump in refugees relocating from Europe.
The government agency said the surge in the number of permanent and temporary immigrants could “also represent additional challenges for some regions of the country related to housing, infrastructure and transportation, and service delivery to the population”.
As far as statistics are concerned, Canada welcomed 437,000 immigrants in 2022, while the number of non-permanent residents in the country grew by 607,782.
The swell in population could be attributed to the policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who has made efforts to attract more immigrants since assuming power in 2015. Last year, the government announced to welcome half a million immigrants a year by 2025.
The Canadian government has also been welcoming people from war-torn areas like Ukraine, Afghanistan and from Turkey and Syria and has managed to portray itself in a favourable light before the international community when the far-right groups are advocating against immigration.
The international migration accounts for nearly 96 percent of the growth confirming that the skilled professionals are now looking at Canada as a better option than US, UK or other European destinations.
The data comes at a time when US President Joe Biden is scheduled to land in Canada on Thursday for talks with Canadian Prime Minister to discuss issues also involving increase in asylum seekers crossing at unofficial points along their countries’ shared border.
