At noon on October 5, 2009, Canada’s official Population Clock noted there were 33,801,247 people living in the country. The number increases by one every minute and 21 seconds.
Canada’s Population Growth Comes from Immigration
According to Canada’s 2006 census the country’s population was 31,612,897.
That census figure is an increase of 5.4 percent since 2001, when the previous official tabulation was made. Two-thirds of the population growth was from immigration, and some demographers think it will be the only source of growth by 2030. Canada has the highest per capita immigration rate in the world, driven by economic policy and family reunification as well as large numbers of refugees.
Population Concentrated in Canada’s Cities
In 2009, between 240,000 and 265,000 new migrants are expected to arrive in Canada. Newcomers settle mostly in the major urban areas of Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.
About two-thirds of Canada’s population lives within 150 kilometres of the United States border. And, they’re concentrated in large urban areas: five of the eight fastest-growing cities in the country were in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (100 municipalities along the western end of Lake Ontario), which now includes a quarter of Canada’s population.
Similarly, half of Quebecers live in the Greater Montreal area, and in British Columbia half the people live in Greater Vancouver. As Canada’s largest urban areas, these three account for nearly half of the country’s population. More than 80 percent of Canadians, or 25 million people, live in urban areas.
At the same time, small towns, with between 5,000 and 9,000 people, are disappearing unless they are commuting distance of a larger city.
Visible Minority Population Expanding
In the 2006 census, there were 5,068,100 people considered to belong to a visible minority, making up 16.2 percent of the population. Between 2001 and 2006, the visible minority population rose by 27.2 percent.
The largest ethnic group is English (21 percent), followed by French (15.8 percent), Scottish (15.2 percent), Irish (13.9 percent), German (10.2 percent), Italian (5 percent), Chinese (4 percent), Ukrainian (3.6 percent), and First Nations (3.5 percent).
About a third of respondents identified their ethnicity as “Canadian.” Canada’s Aboriginal population is growing almost twice as fast as the Canadian average, and 3.8 percent of Canada’s population claimed Aboriginal identity in 2006.
Also, 16.2 percent of the population belonged to non-aboriginal visible minorities. The largest visible minority groups in Canada are South Asian (4.1 percent), Chinese (4 percent), and Black (2.5 percent).
According to the 2006 census, there are 43 ethnic origins that at least 100,000 people in Canada claim in their background.
Baby Boomers Contribute to Aging Population
In common with many other developed countries, a lot of Canada’s people are aging, with more retirees and fewer people of working age. In 2006, the average age of the civilian population was 39.5 years. But, more youngsters are on the way.
Canadian women gave birth to 367,864 babies in Canada in 2007, up 13,247 or 3.7 percent from 2006 and the fastest annual increase since 1989. The number rose in all age groups, particularly among mothers aged 30 to 34, and in nearly all provinces and territories.
According to the 2006 census, nearly one in three Canadians are boomers, and the 55 to 64 age bracket is the fastest growing group in the country, accounting for 3.7 million people. That’s a 28.1 percent rise from the last census in 2001.
Those over-80 were the second-fastest growing group. Numbers for the under-15 age group shrank to just 17.7 percent of the population, or 5.6 million, the lowest level ever.
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