Statistics Canada released the first results from the 2021 census, including the number of Canadians counted and the population growth, and it will in the coming months publish the full results from the census conducted every five years.
According to the results, around 80 percent of Canada's population growth was due to immigration and 20 percent to natural increase, which means the natural increase fell from 0.3 percent to 0.1 percent, the lowest level on record. Despite the decline, Statistics Canada said the country is expected to maintain a positive natural increase for the next 50 years.
Statistics Canada said the COVID-19 pandemic not only slowed the arrival of immigrants from other lands and may also have impacted fertility rates.
A recent study suggested that one-fifth of Canadian adults under the age of 50 wanted to have fewer children than previously planned or delayed having children as a result of the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, fertility in Canada had been decreasing since 2015 and hit a record low of 1.4 children per woman in 2020, according to Statistics Canada.
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