320,000 newcomers came to Canada in past year, highest number since 1971

More than 300,000 newcomers arrived in Canada in the past year, the highest number since modern record-keeping began, new estimates show.

In the past year to July, 320,932 immigrants landed in the country, the largest annual number since at least July, 1971, when comparable records started, Statistics Canada said in its annual population count. That is a 33.3-per-cent increase over the prior year, when 240,844 immigrants came to Canada, the fastest growth in nearly three decades.

The arrival of Syrian refugees, which began in November, 2015, partly explains the increase. At last count, Canada had welcomed 30,862 refugees, with thousands more still to be processed (Statscan’s count includes Syrian refugees in its broader category of immigrants).

Immigration Minister John McCallum has recently said he wants to boost immigration levels in the coming years to help alleviate the demographic challenges of an aging population.

Though earlier data are not strictly comparable, the increase in immigration numbers appears to be the largest in more than a century. “The country had not received such a large number of immigrants in a single annual period since the early 1910s during the settlement of Western Canada,” Statscan said. Read More…

320,000 newcomers came to Canada in past year, highest number since 1971