With the slow decline of the temporary resident population, the average age of Canadians crept up in the second quarter of 2025, says the country’s latest population updates.Ìý
For the first time, one province — Newfoundland and Labrador — sawÌýthe proportion of people agedÌý65Ìýand older surpass 25 per cent of its overall population, said the Statistics Canada report released on Wednesday.
Canada experienced significant population growth between 2022 and 2024 when the number of people living here went from 39 million to 41.5Ìýmillion, primarily due to the ballooning number of international students, foreign workers and asylum seekers.
Ottawa introduced measures to reduce the temporary resident population last year amid a housing and affordability crisis that has led toÌýgrowing public sentiment against immigration. Those changes have been credited with slowing the total population growth.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced new measures to limit and curb the abuse of the
After seeing almost zero growth in the first quarter of this year, Canada added 47,098 people between April and June, bringing the population to 41,651,653.Ìý
The national statistics agency saidÌýthe number of temporary residents in the country dropped for the third quarter in a row, from the peak ofÌý3,149,131 on Oct. 1,Ìý2024ÌýtoÌý3,024,216Ìýby JulyÌý1 this year. It helped reduce the ratio of the temporary residents in the total population from 7.6 per cent to 7.3 per cent, which is still significantly above the five per cent target set for 2027 by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government.
The numbers were driven by a reduction in temporary residents and a natural population decrease.
The numbers were driven by a reduction in temporary residents and a natural population decrease.
In the second quarter of 2025, the number of international students was down by 32,025; foreign workers dropped by 19,637; and those with both study and work permits declined by 19,072. However, those reductions have been offset by the addition of 17,901 refugees in the country. Most of that increase was in Ontario (+8,177) and Quebec (+4,523).
Over the three-month period, Canada welcomed 103,507 new permanent residents, the lowest level in the second quarter since 2022.
The overall immigration slowdown has also brought Canada back to its general trend of increasing median and average ages from 1967 to 2021, said the Statistics Canada report.ÌýCanada’s median age — the age that divides the population into equal halves — increased fromÌý40.3Ìýyears on JulyÌý1,Ìý2024, toÌý40.6Ìýyears on JulyÌý1,Ìý2025, while the average age rose fromÌý41.6Ìýyears toÌý41.8Ìýyears.Ìý
“With international migration returning to levels closer to those seen before the pandemic, the usual changes in Canada’s age structure are re-emerging, as population aging is unavoidable,” said .
Compounded by a declining fertility rate and increase in life expectancy, the proportion of the senior population is continuing to increase. Almost 19.5 per cent of Canadians were agedÌý65Ìýand older on JulyÌý1, ranging from 5.2 per cent in Nunavut toÌý25.2 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador.
While Nunavut reported the lowest median (27.1Ìýyears) and average (29.6Ìýyears) ages, Newfoundland and Labrador was at the other end of the spectrum, reaching 47.8Ìýyears and 45.9Ìýyears respectively.
The number of people moving from one province to another has also declined to 110,188 in the second quarter.ÌýAlberta saw a net gain of 6,187 people interprovincial migration while Ontario lost 6,154 people — the largest net loss for theÌý15th consecutive quarter — to Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec.
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