Alberta experienced the fastest population growth rate among all provinces from 2025 to 2026, a rate triple that of Canada as a whole, Statistics Canada says.
The province’s population grew by 1.5 percent, or 76,419 more people, between July 1, 2025, and July 1, 2026, while the only province or territory whose population decreased during the same period was the Northwest Territories at minus 0.3 percent, or 127 fewer people, the federal agency reported on Sept. 23.
In comparison, from July 1, 2024, to July 1, 2025, Alberta’s population grew by 2.5 percent, which was also the largest growth rate in the country.
Other provinces that grew from 2025 to 2026 included New Brunswick and Saskatchewan at 1 percent, adding 8,811 and 12,113 people, respectively; Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia at 0.8 percent, adding 1,395 and 8,262, respectively; and Manitoba at 0.6 percent, adding 8,797 people, data from the latest report said.
Meanwhile, Canada’s population as a whole grew by 0.5 percent, adding 189,425 people, the lowest July-to-July growth rate since 1944–45.
Conversely, populations of Canada’s three largest provinces grew at a slower pace than the country overall, with Ontario growing 0.3 percent, Quebec growing at 0.2 percent, and British Columbia growing by 0.1 percent.
“These provinces tend to welcome the largest share of international migrants and are thus more affected by changes in international migration levels,” the report said.
Population Aging Continues
The median and average ages in Canada increased over the last two years, as international migration levels returned to those seen in the decade before 2020, StatCan said. This resumes the “general trend” of increasing median and average ages seen from 1967 to 2021.
Data showed that on July 1, 2026, the median age of people in Canada was 40.9 years and the average age was 42.1 years.
The two five-year age groups that saw the largest decreases in 2025 to 2026 were 20 to 24 years, which decreased by 63,838 people or 2.4 percent, and 25 to 29 years, who decreased by 91,135 people or 3.1 percent, the report said.
Overall, there was a drop of 154,973 people in their 20s, or minus 2.8 percent, which was “consistent with the fall in the number of study permit holders in the country, since international students tend to be young adults.”
The report added that the 60-to-64 age group, comprising 2,658,594 people, decreased from 2024 to 2026, which hadn’t happened since 1996, as the smaller Generation X has now entered this age group while the larger baby boomer generation ages out.
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