Immigration fuels record growth
Canada saw record-high population growth last year due to a surge in immigrants and temporary residents, the government statistical agency said Wednesday, adding that if the trend continues the nation will double its population in 26 years.
As of January 1, the country's population hit 39,566,248 after adding 1,050,110 people over the previous 12 months -- a sizeable gain the likes of which has not been seen since the post-war baby boom of the 1950s.
In the present day, however, international migration accounted for nearly all of the growth (95.9 percent) as Ottawa sought to bring in more and more immigrants to fill a labor shortage.
"This marks the first 12-month period in Canada's history where population grew by over 1 million people," Statistics Canada said in a statement.
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