Canada sees large drop in population amid international students crackdown | Canada
Canada experienced one of the biggest declines in population in the last quarter as a result of the crackdown on international students. The decline marks a dramatic turnaround for a country that has long attributed its economic growth to immigration.
New estimates released Wednesday by Statistics Canada It showed Canada’s population fell 0.2% in the third quarter, to 41.6 million from 41.65 million on July 1.
This was the other quarterly decline recorded in 2020 and was attributed to Covid-19 border restrictions.
But the recent decline is largely due to a decline in the number of international students studying in Canada after Ottawa pledged to reduce the number of study permits issued.
Canada’s Liberal party, which oversaw record levels of immigration during former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s tenure, quickly changed course after mounting pressure On immigration, which many see as unsustainable.
In the third quarter of 2023, Canada’s quarterly population growth reached the highest level since 1957, adding 420,000 people to the country during that three-month period.
Non-permanent residents make up roughly 6.8% of the total population; This rate was 7.3% last quarter. Current prime minister Mark Carney has pledged to reduce the number of non-permanent residents of Canada to 5 per cent of the total population by the end of 2027.
Part of that plan includes halving the number of international student permits, from a target of 305,900 newcomers for 2025 to 155,000 in 2026 and 150,000 in 2027 and 2028. At the same time, the federal government plans to slowly increase the number of permanent residents admitted to Canada. It envisages the admission of 395,000 new permanent residents in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.
Finance minister François-Philippe Champagne recently told reporters that Canada has “exceeded our capacity to welcome and provide services” to immigrants in recent years.
Bank of Montreal economist Robert Kavcic wrote in a note Wednesday that “a major demographic adjustment is underway, and it remains one of the biggest economic stories in Canada.”
“To reach the target share of non-permanent residents, we will need to see population growth remain just above zero by 2028, before settling at a population rate of just under 1% in the long term.”
“We have argued from the beginning that the explosion in population growth (at one point to almost 1.3 million people in one year) has played a significant role in many of the economic problems that Canadian policymakers are struggling to deal with,” he wrote, adding that he sees a “significant weakening” of the rental market, less pressure on services inflation and growth in real gross domestic product per capita as among the potential impacts he sees as a result of the decline.
The new figures show that all provinces and territories reported population declines except Alberta and Nunavut, which both saw a 0.2% increase.
