Statscan reports Alberta as the most popular destination for interprovincial migrants in Canada

Alberta has overtaken British Columbia as the most popular destination for people looking to migrate from one province to another, with most of its major cities recording net gains, according to a new report by Statistics Canada.

From July 1, 2022, to July 1, 2023, Calgary and Edmonton recorded overall net gains of 26,662 and 16,082, respectively, when it comes to exchanges with other provinces.

By contrast, Ontario reported a net loss in each of its large cities for the second consecutive year. Vancouver recorded a net loss of 4,795 people, its highest loss to interprovincial migration in more than 20 years.

“People tend to move to places where there are more jobs and housing costs are lower,” Stacey Hallman, an analyst at Statistic Canada’s Centre for Demography, said. “This can change at any point. What we are seeing right now is a lot of people are moving to Alberta.”

The agency’s annual report on sub-provincial areas provides crucial information on population growth in large cities as well as suburban and rural areas, which can then be used to figure out their resulting needs, such as housing and health care.

Overall, Canada’s census metropolitan areas (CMAs) grew at a rate of 3.5 per cent, outpacing the country’s growth rate of 2.9 per cent, suggesting Canada continues to become more urbanized. Almost three in four Canadians, or about 29.8 million people, lived in CMAs as of July 1, 2023.

The report also said people are increasingly moving away from city centers to peripheral areas in the same province. The population in rural areas grew by 1.1 per cent, which is below the overall growth rate of Canada.