Search KamloopsBCNow
At some point between July 1 and Oct. 1, 2018, British Columbia hit a population milestone.
The province’s population surpassed the five-million mark, the first time it’s ever reached that number.
As of the end of the third-quarter of 2018, B.C.’s population sits at 5,016,322, up around 70,000 from the same time last year.
It took the province nearly two decades to make it from four-million to five-million people, as it hit the four-million mark in 1999.
Statistics Canada says “international migratory increase” was the main factor for the increase, not only in B.C. but across Canada as well.
Every province and territory except for Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon and the Northwest Territories saw population increases in the third quarter of 2018.
International migration continued to be the main driver of the #CanadianPopulation growth between July and October, 2018. Moreover, international migratory increase of the country peaked at the level never seen in the past (+146,531)! https://t.co/rE0dkL7T6e pic.twitter.com/JLjbHLtxsv
— Statistics Canada (@StatCan_eng) December 31, 2018
As a whole, Canada’s population increased by 183,715 people to 37,242,571, the largest increase since the current demographic accounting system began in July 1971.
While immigrants certainly fueled that increase, it was also aided by the difference between 103,199 births and 66,015 deaths.
That trend isn’t expected to continue, however, as the natural increase will likely decrease in Canada over coming years as a result of an aging population.