Quebec's population surpasses 9 million, non-permanent residents and immigrants fueling growth

People walk in downtown Montreal, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. Environment Canada has issued a winter storm warning for the province and the city of Montreal is expected to see close to 15cm of snow, ice pellets and freezing rain by morning. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

Quebec's population passed 9 million people on Thursday, according to Statistics Canada's real-time model.

As of 1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, Stats Can reported the population in the province was 9,000,075.

If added to Ontario's 15,919,676 people, the two provinces account for around 61 per cent of Canada's population of just over 40,819,700.

Quebec reached 8 million people in 2011.

Immigrants and non-permanent residents fueling growth

Statistics Canada says the drivers of Quebec's population growth have been mainly immigrants and non-permanent residents.

"Natural increase, the difference between births and deaths, plays a decreasing role in population growth in the province," Stats Can communications officer Koraly Pepin explains. "The situation in Quebec is reflected across the country where international migration is the major contributor to growth and has been for many years."

Quebec's population grew by 2.3 per cent in the year leading up to July 1 compared to 1.2 per cent the year prior to that and 0.3 per cent in 2015.

"The different rates of growth over that period are almost entirely attributable to the increase in international migration to the province," said Pepin.

Stats Can said that 64,470 immigrants arrived in Quebec between July 1, 2022 and 2023, as well as 148,631 non-permanent residents.

By comparison, the federal agency said 45,509 immigrants and 4,522 non-permanent residents arrived in the province in 2015.

Pepin says the population growth is in line with the other provinces, with non-permanent residents "seeing particularly strong growth."

"While this data is only available starting in the third quarter of 2021, the total number of non-permanent residents in Quebec (and across Canada) has almost doubled in the province from 281,587 to 528,034 in the fourth quarter of 2023," said Pepin. "This increase alone represents over 60 per cent of the growth experienced in the province over that period."