Despite the ongoing pandemic, Canada leads the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized nations in terms of population growth.
Statistics Canada reports that the national population was just over 36.9 million on census day last year, growing by an annualized rate of 5.2% between 2016 and 2021.
The five-year growth rate was double that of any peer country in the G7, and Statistics Canada says most of the growth happened prior to the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
Statistics Canada said the main reason for the slowdown in growth was border restrictions that, while meant to slow the spread of COVID-19, also slowed the pace of immigration.
The Ottawa-based agency said population growth was at a record high before the pandemic, and then slowed to its lowest rate in a century in 2020.
Statistics Canada said there were about 1.8 million more people calling the country home in 2021 compared with 2016, with four in every five new people counted being immigrants.
