Alberta’s Population Growth Highest in Canada, With Record Numbers Moving to the Province

A pedestrian walks along the Bow River as the Calgary skyline looms in the background, on July 15, 2021. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

EDMONTON—People are moving to Alberta in record numbers, making it the fastest-growing province in the country, according to new numbers from Statistics Canada.

The latest population estimates released on Sept. 27 indicate Alberta set a new record for annual net growth from interprovincial migration—meaning people moving to the province from other parts of Canada—in the mid-year update.

Alberta had an overall population gain of more than 4 percent between July 1, 2022, and July 1, 2023, which translated to more than 184,000 new people living there in the last year, with a total population of an estimated 4.7 million.

“This growth was not only due to international migration but was also the result of record net gains from migratory exchanges between provinces,” said a StatCan report on demographic estimates also released Sept. 27.

“Alberta saw 56,245 more people moving to the province than leaving it, making these not only the highest annual net interprovincial gains for Alberta, but the highest annual net interprovincial gains ever recorded for any single province or territory since comparable data are available (from 1971/1972).”

According to statistics released by the Alberta government on July 5, the population expanded by the highest annual growth rate since 1981, and was a significant increase from the year 2021–2022 when the population expanded by 1.8 percent.

Alberta’s population expanded by 50,061 residents over the second quarter of 2023, or 1.1 percent. This represents the highest second-quarter growth rate on record in the current data series, which began in 1971, the province indicated.

Many of the interprovincial newcomers to Alberta are arriving from Ontario and B.C.—approximately 74,000 last year—which may be due to the lower housing prices in the Prairie province.

Other Provinces

During the same period, seven other provinces saw their population increase at historic rates: Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

All three Maritime provinces registered a population growth of at least 3.0 percent: Prince Edward Island (3.9 percent), Nova Scotia (3.2 percent), and New Brunswick (3.1 percent). Ontario and British Columbia (3.0 percent each) trailed behind Alberta and the Maritime provinces for population growth, with Manitoba (2.9 percent) and Saskatchewan (2.6 percent) close behind.

While Quebec’s population growth hit a record high of 2.3 percent, it had the second-lowest growth among all provinces. Despite registering its highest population growth in more than 50 years, Newfoundland and Labrador’s rate was the lowest among all provinces, at 1.3 percent.

StatCan said some of the population growth being seen across the country can be attributed to an increase in the number of temporary immigrants.

Alberta’s booming oil and gas industry has always attracted workers from other provinces, but the latest numbers are the biggest on record from StatCan’s 52-year collection of data. Only once, from 1980 to 1981, have more Canadians moved to Alberta in a single year.

International net migration was the biggest driver of Alberta’s growth in the second quarter, contributing 0.68 percent, followed by net interprovincial migration at 0.30 percent and natural increase with 0.10 percent, the province said.

Alberta said in its population projections that by 2051, the province will add about 2.6 million people for a population of roughly 7.1 million. The province expects an average annual growth of 1.5 percent per year, with 55 percent attributed to international migration, 28 percent as a result of natural increase, and 17 percent from interprovincial migration.

The province also anticipates that the number of seniors will more than double by 2051, to one out of five Albertans being elderly, and that overall the population will become older, with an average age of 41.6 years old, up from 39 years old in 2022.

The province anticipates that regions with large urban areas will see higher growth, with an estimated four out of five people, or 81 percent of the province’s population, living in the Edmonton or Calgary corridor by 2051.