Population growth has resumed in Quebec after being slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, with growth in the first six months of 2022 returning to, and even slightly exceeding, pre-pandemic levels.
New data from the Quebec Statistics Institute (ISQ) estimates the province's population at 8.7 million people on July 1, 2022.
In its latest demographic report presented on Thursday, the ISQ reported an addition of 58,600 inhabitants in 2021. For the first six months of 2022, the increase already reached 58,000 people.
According to the institute, the current population increase is mainly due to international migration gains. Some 50,300 permanent immigrants settled in 2021 in Quebec, about double the number from the previous year. This number has been rising since the beginning of 2022.
In terms of interprovincial migration, Quebec also shows "among the lowest ever recorded," the ISQ noted, with losses of 2,200 people last year.
"The data for the first half of 2022 indicate that as many Quebec residents have moved to another province as have moved to Quebec, a situation rarely seen before," the ISQ added in a release.
In 2021, deaths decreased and births increased, but the latest demographic report points to the opposite in the first months of the current year.
Moreover, the number of people aged 65 and over surpassed the number of young people under 20 for the first time.
The older group accounts for 20.8 per cent of the Quebec population against 20.6 per cent for the younger category.
- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 15, 2022
