demographics
BC REGISTERS RECORD INTERNATIONAL INFLOWS IN Q3 2019
Immigration is the primary driver to population growth in BC and this won't be changing any time soon.
The most recent quarterly population data shows that British Columbia added 34,240 people in Q3 2019. This was up 32% versus the same period in 2018, up 39% from the previous quarter, and only 3% below the all-time high for growth in a quarter (in Q4 1994). Another way to think of this is that third-quarter growth in 2019 saw 375 net new residents settle in BC every single day. The acceleration of growth in this most recent quarter reflected more robust additions across natural increase, interprovincial migration, and international movers than during the same period in 2018. Natural increase, which reflects the difference between the number of births and deaths during a specified period of time, did rise by 5% as it contributed 2,572 people to the provincial population in Q3. Having said this, the Q3 2019 figure remains part of an established longer-term trend of shrinking contributions from natural increase. This is the result of BC’s below-replacement fertility rate and an ever-aging population into, as demographers say, the “higher mortality stages of the lifecycle”.
In contrast to the loss of 92 people in Q3 2018 through interprovincial migration flows, the most recent quarterly data showed a net gain for BC of 1,970 people from other parts of the country, in part a reflection of this province's relatively strong economic performance this past year. Far and away the largest contributor to BC's growth in Q3 2019 was net international migration, which accounted for 87% of growth in the period as it added 29,698 people to the province. This reflected all-time quarterly net inflows of 15,914 immigrants and 16,413 net non-permanent residents (many of whom are students). In the quarters and years ahead, look for BC's net international migration to contribute even more to overall population growth due to both continuing trends in the natural components of demographic change and the expansion of Canada’s national immigration targets to 350,000 next year—a real boon for this province's labour force.
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