P.E.I. blasts past population projection with record immigration

Prince Edward Island welcomed a record number of immigrants in the first quarter of 2023 as the Island led the country in population growth once again.

A Statistics Canada report released Wednesday showed a population growth of 1.2 per cent from Jan. 1 to March 1, which puts it in a tie for top rate of growth with Alberta. Nationally, population growth was 0.7 per cent.

The addition of 2,159 people to the Island's population sent the total flying past the provincial government's projection for 2023, which was revised just last month.

About 55 per cent of the growth came from immigration.

Statistics Canada recorded 1,274 immigrants landing on P.E.I. from January through March. Looking back to 1946 that is a record number, and only the third time immigration has exceeded 1,000 people in a quarter.

In the second half of the 20th century, immigration over three months exceeded 100 only three times. That has flipped in recent decades, with immigration per quarter in the hundreds starting in 2006, even through the pandemic.

Interprovincial migration added another 790 to the population.

That number is made up of almost 2,000 Canadians moving to P.E.I. from other parts of the country, and more than 1,000 leaving.

Interprovincial migration has been volatile in recent years, with people coming and going at rates not seen since the 1980s.

The P.E.I. government launched a population growth strategy in 2017, and has regularly led the country since.

The strategy was launched to mitigate the problems associated with an aging population, such as a shortage of workers. But growth has, in the meantime, created other problems — in particular a housing shortage as the construction industry has been unable to keep up with demand for new homes.