N.L. the only province to see population drop since 2016, says new census

Canada's newest census shows Newfoundland and Labrador is the only Canadian province to see a drop in population over the past five years.

According to the data released by Statistics Canada, the province's population dropped 1.8 per cent between 2016 and 2021.

For comparison, Canada's population rose 5.2 per cent as a whole, while the other Atlantic provinces grew by an average of 5.6 per cent.

The data suggest the province saw its largest drop in rural areas of Newfoundland, as the population of Corner Brook — which Stats Canada lists as a small urban centre — dropped by almost four per cent.

Conversely, the City of St. John's, the province's largest urban centre, saw its population grow by two per cent over the five-year span.

For Immigration Minister Gerry Byrne, the numbers are in line with what the province already projected. However, he says it highlights the need to grow the province's population through means like immigration.

"The news is grim, because of course the forecasts also say that for the next 30 years, the population of Newfoundland and Labrador is expected to decline," Byrne told CBC News Wednesday.

"It puts it into real stark contrast and really highlights the importance of growing our population in Newfoundland and Labrador, the consequences of not doing so are dire and significant."

However, Byrne says the news when it comes to the province's population isn't all bad.

In the three quarters that followed the recording of the census in May 2021, Newfoundland and Labrador's population grew by over 2,000 residents, according to Byrne and data provided by the provincial government. Byrne says the majority came from immigration, which government has increasingly focused on in recent years.

The province plans to welcome 5,100 immigrants into the province per year by 2026. More than 1,600 immigrants came to Newfoundland and Labrador last year, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Immigration was also a leading factor in national population growth, according to Stats Canada, who say nearly four-fifths of population growth since 2016 can be attributed to those moving here from other countries.

The other one-fifth comes from natural increase, or the number of births minus the number of deaths. Newfoundland and Labrador isn't seeing natural growth, however, as the number of deaths in the province has outweighed births each year since 2016.

"The only way that we can mitigate that is through immigration," Bryne said.