Canada has seen record population growth in 2022 due to an influx of immigrants and temporary residents, the National Statistics Institute announced Wednesday, March 22, predicting a doubling of the population in 26 years if the trend continues.
As of January 1, Canada had 39,566,248 inhabitants, one million more than a year earlier – an increase not seen since 1957. With immigration as the main source. Canada recorded “by far” the highest population growth rate (+2.7%) of the G7 countries, Statistics Canada said in a release, and continues a trend that began several years ago. Almost all countries with a higher population growth rate (…) were in Africa,” the institute said.
Faced with an unemployment rate that has almost never been so low (5%) and an aging population, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has doubled its goal of welcoming immigrants since it came to power in 2015. In 2022, the country took in 437,180 immigrants and now has a goal of admitting 500,000 each year by 2025 to make up for the labor shortage. The number of temporary residents, holding work or study permits, was also on the rise, reaching 607,782.
Housing, infrastructure and transportation challenges
The Canadian government also announced on Wednesday an extension until next year of the program to provide emergency shelter for Ukrainian refugees, which was due to expire next week. And authorities recently unveiled new measures to make it easier for Turkish and Syrian citizens already in Canada to immigrate, a month after the earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in those two countries.
According to Statistics Canada, the increase in immigration “could pose additional challenges for some regions of the country, related to housing, infrastructure and transportation, as well as for the provision of services to the population.
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