Canada’s population and consumer base has seen strong growth thanks to immigration, according to the country’s statistics agency.
StatsCan figures revealed that 82.2% of the population growth seen in 2018/2019 stemmed from immigrants and non-permanent residents. Overall, the population increased by 1.4%, which was the highest among G7 nations.
The rate of growth was more than twice as fast as that seen in both the United States and the United Kingdom (0.6% each), and was much higher than the rate seen in Germany (0.3%) and France (0.2%).
Over the past two years, Canada has admitted 313,580 immigrants, which was one of the highest volumes ever recorded. The number of non-permanent residents also increased by 171,536 during this period, representing the largest such increase in Canadian history.
“While also fuelled by rapid growth in asylum claimants, this gain was mainly led by an increase in the number of work and study permit holders. Temporary immigration assists Canada in meeting its labour market needs,” StatsCan noted in its data release.
The nation’s mortgage credit load has seen significant expansion in the wake of this population growth. Bank of Canada figures showed that the outstanding balance reached a new high of more than $1.59 trillion as of August, increasing by 4% annually and by 0.6% from July 2019.
This was the fifth straight month of increases in this metric. The August upswing was also 8.1% higher than the year-over-year gain seen during the same month last year.
Ephraim is currently a journalist at Mortgage Broker News, Real Estate Professional and Canadian Real Estate Wealth.
Ephraim is a highly accomplished news reporter whose work has been published across North America and the Asia Pacific region. Before joining Key Media, Ephraim spent eight years working as a journalist with Reuters TV. His areas of expertise include real estate, mortgage, and finance.
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