Nova Scotia’s strong population growth has tapered off for the first time since 2020
Global News
The population boom recorded in Nova Scotia since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have come to an end.
The population boom recorded in Nova Scotia since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have come to an end.
Statistics Canada’s latest numbers show that as of Oct. 1, there were 1,091,857 people in the province, a decline of 1,388 from July 1, 2025. That tiny 0.13 per cent slide marked the first decline since the same period in 2020, and the first substantial drop since March 2015.
In February 2022, Statistics Canada released five-year census data showing that between 2016 and 2021, Nova Scotia had largely succeeded in reversing a decades-long decline in population, thanks in part to a steady influx of Canadians from other provinces.
For the first time since the 1981-86 census, more people had moved to the Maritimes from other parts of Canada than had moved away. And by December 2021, Nova Scotia’s population had reached a historic milestone, topping one million souls for the first time.
The federal numbers show that during the past five years, Nova Scotia’s upward population trend has held a steady pace, fuelling economic growth but also putting pressure on the province’s health-care system, housing supply and transportation infrastructure.
Meanwhile, successive provincial governments have drawn heavily from revenues that have steadily risen from $12.4 billion in fiscal 2020-21 to $18.2 billion in 2024-25, when taxes made up 51 per cent of all government revenue.
But on Thursday, Finance Minister John Lohr confirmed projected revenue for 2025-26 was expected to drop by $1.6 billion, to $16.6 billion, as he released the province’s latest financial update.
When asked about impact of the population slump on the public purse, Lohr said the government had to focus on growing the economy to turn things around.
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