More than 80% of Canada’s population growth due to immigration

A new study conducted by Statistics Canada study shows that Canada’s population has increased by 76,000 during the first three months of 2020. The study found that 80% of the growth was due to immigration. At this moment, Canada’s population is just less than 38 million people. The period between January and March of 2020 saw population growth that can be majorly attributed to immigrants.

The pandemic resulted in Canada experiencing the smallest first-quarter population rise since 2015. The coronavirus came to Canada back in January and has impacted travel drastically. Canada imposed travel restrictions on March 18th in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Moreover, it is likely that COVID-19 caused fewer Canadians to return to Canada. The number of temporary residents to arrive in the country also fell as compared to 2019.

Results:

The immigration statistics were better in the first three months of this year compared with 2019. Canada allowed 70,000 immigrants to come into the country at the beginning of the year. In 2019, the first quarter saw the arrival of 66,000 immigrants. The initial immigration numbers in Canada would have been even stronger had it not been for the pandemic. The implementation of temporary travel restrictions caused the immigration levels to go down since March.

The arrival of temporary resident arrivals was almost 80% lesser as compared to 2019 because of a decline in the number of international students coming into the country. The Statistics Canada study states that COVID-19 might end up having a larger impact on the permanent and temporary resident levels in Canada between April and the end of June. Canada is heavily dependent on immigration to increase population growth, and the pandemic might cause weaker population growth, according to Statistics Canada’s quarterly study.