Canada's 2006 census reveals that two main forces determine the way Canadians live: immigration and urbanization.
Canada's population stood at 31,612,897 in 2006, according to the most recent census, with a growth rate of 5.4 per cent from 2001 to 2006. Estimates based on that growth rate put Canada's population at more than 32,850,000 as of March 2007.
Of the 1.6 million new Canadians between 2001 and 2006, the vast majority — 1.2 million — were new immigrants. The number of native-born Canadians increased by 400,000 during the same time.
Canada's growth rate is higher than it was during the last census period: four per cent from 1996 to 2001. However, the growth rate is low compared to rates seen in Canada from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Canada now boasts the highest growth rate among the G8 countries. The U.S. has a higher natural growth rate but Canada's immigration rate of 240,000 newcomers per year offset the lower fertility rate.
Alberta and Ontario were responsible for two-thirds of Canada's population increase. They had the highest growth rates of all the provinces. Nearly all of the remaining third occurred in British Columbia and Quebec, but growth in both provinces fell behind the national average.
Manitoba was the only other province with growth greater than two per cent. The populations of the Maritime provinces were virtually unchanged from the 2001 census.
The populations of Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador actually dropped between 2001 and 2006, although the 1.5 per cent drop in Newfoundland and Labrador was much smaller than the seven per cent drop between 1996 and 2001.
All three territories experienced growth higher than the national average, bringing the population in the North to more than 100,000 people, nearly half — 47 per cent — living in the territories' capital cities. However, Statistics Canada said the 11-per-cent growth rate in the Northwest Territories is likely the result of an undercount of N.W.T. inhabitants in 2001.
More Canadians — four out of five — are living in cities than ever before. About 90 per cent of the growth seen across the country was in Canada's 33 metropolitan centres with a population of at least 100,000. Nearly half of all Canadians live in the areas in and around Montreal, Vancouver and Ontario's Golden Horseshoe. The growth rate of Barrie, Ont., the highest in the census, was nearly four times higher than the national average.
The proportion of people living in cities is similar to the United States, but lower than in the United Kingdom, where it is close to 90 per cent.
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