Nova Scotia Population Hits One Million
HALIFAX—Nova Scotia marked a milestone today when the province’s population passed one million people.
Statistics Canada doesn’t publish daily population numbers. But it does estimate the population of each province based on past growth. Those estimates now put Nova Scotia at more than one million people.
According to Statistics Canada, the milestone comes on the heels of record population growth in the province.
In a news release, Premier Tim Houston called the milestone a “significant moment in our province’s history.”
“More people make us stronger in every way. We all benefit from this growth with a greater tax base, new businesses and jobs, greater diversity and culture and improved infrastructure,” he said.
According to the provincial government, from January 1 to April 1, 5,696 people moved to Nova Scotia from other countries or provinces. That helped the province’s population grow by 2,877 people, the largest increase in the first quarter since 1971.
Statistics Canada says those record-breaking trends continued in the third quarter of the year.
The agency says record-breaking immigration is helping grow the population across the country.
Canada’s population was estimated at 38,436,447 on October 1, 2021, an increase of 190,339 people from July 1, 2021. This is the second-highest quarterly growth seen in Canada and “shows a return to pre-pandemic levels of growth.”
More than 122,500 immigrants came to the country from July to September 2021, which was the highest number in any quarter
since 1946.
More people are coming to the country as Covid-19-related border restrictions have eased. Canada also recently started welcoming people from Afghanistan following the recent crisis in their country.
Nova Scotia is no exception to high immigration numbers. The province’s current immigrant retention rate is 71 percent, which is the highest in Atlantic Canada.
The provincial government says it plans to double Nova Scotia’s population over the next four decades. By 2060, it aims to have 2 million people living here.
To do that, the province aims to attract 25,000 newcomers per year through a combination of migration from other parts of Canada and strategic immigration efforts.
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