OTTAWA—A new Statistics Canada survey says almost half the country’s population could be an immigrant or the child of an immigrant within the next 20 years.
It suggests the proportion of immigrants in Canada’s population could reach 30 percent in 2036—compared to 20.7 percent in 2011—and a further 20 percent of the population would be the child of an immigrant, up from the 17.5 percent recorded in 2011.
The numbers released Wednesday, Jan. 25, are a far cry from the country’s first census of the population in 1871—four years after Confederation—when 16.1 percent of the 3.7 million people in Canada were born abroad, with Britain, the United States, and Germany as the most likely countries of origin.
The population projections show immigration will alter the country’s cultural landscape under all scenarios Statistics Canada explored as part of an ongoing project to map out Canada’s future as the nation turns 150 years old.
