2006 Canadian census data out today…

Very interesting data is starting to emerge from the 2006 census. One of the more surprising revelations, at least to me, is that Canada had the highest population growth of all G8 countries and most of this growth has come from immigration, to Alberta and Ontario in particular. Edmonton and Calgary now officially have populations exceeding one million people and Alberta’s overall population has grown by 10% in the last five years. 1.2 million immigrants have settled in Canada between 2001 and 2006, which I think is pretty great to see.

Here are a few more interesting stats from the Statistics Canada 2006 census highlights page:

– Two-thirds of Canada’s population growth was attributable to net international migration, while the U.S. population growth resulted mostly from natural increase, as fertility was higher in the United States than in Canada.

– Alberta and Ontario were responsible for two-thirds of Canada’s population increase. Nearly all of the remaining third occurred in British Columbia and Quebec.

– Alberta is the Canadian province with the highest growth rate since 2001. Alberta’s growth rate (+10.6%) was twice the national average (+5.4%).

– In the 2006 Census, Canada had six metropolitan areas with more than 1 million people: Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa – Gatineau and, for the first time, Calgary and Edmonton. Together, this “millionaire’s club” had a total of 13.6 million residents, or 45% of Canada’s population.

Nothing I can see there, yet, on how many Canadians are currently living outside of Canada, but there are a lot of us as well… It would be interesting to see some sort of international census about where we all live.