New Brunswick smashes population growth record set last year
CBC
The arrival of newcomers from inside and outside Canada continued to rocket New Brunswick's population into uncharted territory during the first half of 2023.
In new figures released this week, Statistics Canada estimated 834,691 people lived in New Brunswick on July 1st this year.
It's 25,123 more than a year earlier and 43,889 above the number from July 1, 2021.
That's more population growth in 24 months than the province experienced over the prior 29 years.
Patrick Charbonneau, a senior analyst with Statistics Canada, said although population growth last year in New Brunswick had been the most recorded in a single year since Confederation in 1867, it was easily surpassed by what happened this year.
It's record after record," said Charbonneau.
"The growth that we observed in the most recent years are both records. It is something we have never observed."
All of the growth has been fuelled by newcomers.
Deaths have outpaced births in New Brunswick over the last two years, at a rate of four to three, and caused a natural population decline of nearly 4,000 people. But arrivals have more than overwhelmed those numbers.
Figures show New Brunswick had a net gain of 14,800 Canadians from other provinces, mostly Ontario, and took in more than 33,000 arrivals from other countries between July 2021 and July 2023.
That group includes about 19,400 permanent immigrants who have settled in New Brunswick, largely from India, China and the Philippines. It also includes 14,000 temporary immigrants who may or may not stay. They include students, temporary foreign workers and refugees.
The increase has been so large and so sudden it has triggered both prosperity and problems in New Brunswick in almost equal measure.
Earlier this week the New Brunswick government announced it posted a budget surplus of $1.01 billion for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2023.
The money piled up largely due to a surge in provincial income and sales taxes, that finance Minister Ernie Steeves credits to so many new people living and working in New Brunswick.
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