A new Canadian statistic shows that the country’s population has been rapidly increasing in 2020. In the first three months, it has grown by 76,000; this is an 82% growth expressly attributed to immigration.
Right now, the population stands just under 38 million!
This is the first major population increase since 2015. The global coronavirus pandemic has greatly contributed to this drastic change.
Like most countries, the COVID-19 virus arrived in Canada in January of this year. To curb the illness, the government had to issue travel restrictions in and out of the country. Experts say that the travel restrictions were necessary to flatten the curve of coronavirus spread.
Since March 18th, no one has been allowed to leave the country or come in because coronavirus is quite communicable.
If you compare the number of Canadians that returned home this year and in 2019, you realize that fewer made it into the country before the travel restrictions were issued out. The same applies to the arrival of temporary residents.
This global pandemic caught all of us by surprise, and governments had to act fast before the situation got out of control.
So, where does this population increase came from?
Remember that for the first three months, people had the liberty to move around as they pleased. Statistics show that the number of immigrants that arrived in Canada within this time was more than a handful.
The country recorded up to 70,000 immigration arrivals before the travel restrictions caught on. This is a huge number because, in 2019, Canada recorded 66,000 immigrant arrivals in the first quarter of the year.
