PEI Population Report Quarterly

Population Report, First Quarter 2024

DIAGRAM 1: PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND POPULATION, QUARTERLY, 2019 - 2024

On June 19, 2024 Statistics Canada published its provincial population estimates for the first quarter of 2024. The data shows Prince Edward Island’s population was estimated to be 177,081 as of April 1, 2024. This represents a yearly increase of 5,291 persons or a 3.1 percent annual growth rate. This is the fourth highest year-over-year growth rate among provinces and territories, behind Alberta (4.4%), Ontario (3.5%), and British Columbia (3.3%). PEI’s year-over-year population growth has slowed in each of the past two quarters, after reaching an all-time high of 4.0 percent during the third quarter of 2023.

Canada’s population surpassed 41 million to reach 41,012,563 as of April 1, 2024, an increase of 3.2 percent over one year ago.

The quarterly estimates since January 1, 2022 and growth rates for Canada and Prince Edward Island can be seen in Table 1.

TABLE 1: NATIONAL AND PROVINCIAL POPULATION & GROWTH RATES, QUARTERLY

	Canada		Prince Edward Island
Quarter	Population	Growth rate (%)	Population	Growth rate (%)
Jan. 1, 2022	38,567,576	0.3	164,195	0.3
Apr. 1, 2022	38,683,567	0.3	165,524	0.8
Jul. 1, 2022	38,939,056	0.7	167,188	1.0
Oct. 1, 2022	39,276,140	0.9	169,146	1.2
Jan. 1, 2023	39,498,018	0.6	169,935	0.5
Apr. 1, 2023	39,739,633	0.6	171,790	1.1
Jul. 1, 2023	40,097,761	0.9	173,787	1.2
Oct. 1, 2023	40,528,396	1.1	175,853	1.2
Jan. 1, 2024	40,769,890	0.6	176,162	0.2
Apr. 1, 2024	41,012,563	0.6	177,081	0.5

All jurisdictions saw a year-over-year population increase April 1, 2024 compared to April 1, 2023. Population estimates for April 1, 2023 and 2024 for all provinces and territories are shown in Table 2 below. The population growth rates and level change for the twelve-month period ending March 31, 2024 are also included.

TABLE 2: POPULATION OF PROVINCES & TERRITORIES, APRIL 1, 2023, 2024 & ANNUAL GROWTH RATES

	Apr 1, 2023	Apr 1, 2024	Growth	Level
CAN	39,739,633	41,012,563	3.2%	1,272,930
NL	536,291	541,391	1.0%	5,100
PEI	171,790	177,081	3.1%	5,291
NS	1,047,803	1,072,545	2.4%	24,742
NB	826,622	850,894	2.9%	24,272
QC	8,814,007	9,030,684	2.5%	216,677
ON	15,457,075	15,996,989	3.5%	539,914
MB	1,443,875	1,484,135	2.8%	40,260
SK	1,200,540	1,231,043	2.5%	30,503
AB	4,645,229	4,849,906	4.4%	204,677
BC	5,466,646	5,646,467	3.3%	179,821
YK	44,596	45,750	2.6%	1,154
NWT	44,678	44,920	0.5%	242
NU	40,481	40,758	0.7%	277

Components of Growth

The total increase in PEI’s population during the first quarter of 2024 (January 1, 2024 to March 31, 2024) was 919 people.

Natural Increase

There were 366 births and 396 deaths on Prince Edward Island from January 1, 2024 to March 31, 2024, resulting in natural growth (births minus deaths) of -30. Deaths have outpaced births in each quarter since the third quarter of 2021.

International Migration

During first quarter 2024, 1,330 international immigrants came to the province, the most on current record for one quarter. The previous high was 1,274 for the first quarter of 2023. At a rate of 7.5 per thousand , the province had the highest quarterly immigration rate in the country, ahead of Yukon at 6.5 per thousand. The immigration rate for Canada was 3.0 per thousand.

Net international migration was estimated to be 968 persons during the first quarter of 2024. This consisted of the aforementioned 1,330 international immigrants plus 876 non-permanent residents (NPRs) and 37 returning Canadians entering the province, while 1,214 NPRs and 61 international emigrants left the province. Net international migration for PEI over the last 12-month period (April 2023 to March 2024) was 5,350. This compares to 4,926 over the previous 12-month period.

It was estimated that 876 non-permanent residents came to PEI during the first quarter of 2024, while 1,214 NPRs left the province, for a net change of -338. As of April 1, 2024, there were 10,799 NPRs on PEI consisting of 5,547 work permit holders, 4,024 study permit holders, 889 with both work and study permits, 307 other permit holders, and 32 asylum claimants. NPRs include foreign workers, foreign students, the humanitarian population and other temporary residents. The humanitarian population includes refugee claimants and temporary residents who are allowed to remain in Canada on humanitarian grounds and are not categorized as either foreign workers or foreign students.

Inter-provincial Migration

A total of 1,171 inter-provincial migrants came to PEI during the first quarter of 2024, while 1,190 people left the province for other areas of Canada, for a net interprovincial loss of 19. This compares to a net gain of 713 persons over the same period in 2023. As shown in Table 3, the primary source of PEI’s inter-provincial in-migrants during this period was from Ontario, followed by Nova Scotia and Alberta. The main destinations of out-migrants from Prince Edward Island were Ontario, Alberta, and Nova Scotia. Alberta gained the most from inter-provincial migration, with 37.0 percent of all interprovincial migrants from other provinces destined for Alberta.

TABLE 3: ORIGIN & DESTINATION OF INTER-PROVINCIAL MIGRANTS, JANUARY 1, 2024 TO MARCH 31, 2024

	DESTINATION
ORIGIN	N.L.	P.E.I.	N.S.	N.B.	Que.	Ont.	Man.	Sask.	Alta.	B.C.	Y.T.	N.W.T.	Nvt.
N.L.	0	8	206	109	69	710	33	62	637	192	4	55	8
P.E.I.	8	0	203	107	32	367	0	0	316	71	17	2	67
N.S.	188	177	0	767	184	1,717	67	75	1,242	416	0	49	18
N.B.	116	87	504	0	476	739	66	57	611	336	0	0	52
Que.	44	85	205	383	0	3,988	151	77	957	693	0	39	28
Ont.	916	534	2,506	2,365	3,841	0	1,348	1,013	9,398	4,790	132	170	174
Man.	104	11	89	116	316	1,177	0	573	1,654	770	6	11	23
Sask.	27	0	116	46	65	1,299	488	0	3,045	734	16	55	23
Alta.	443	135	448	446	621	3,893	907	2,113	0	5,744	94	175	37
B.C.	85	113	385	285	671	3,895	1,063	671	9,218	0	178	86	29
Y.T.	21	0	5	17	41	50	0	23	78	201	0	10	0
N.W.T.	8	9	19	20	5	108	5	30	344	124	41	0	60
Nvt.	38	12	19	10	54	224	124	22	38	42	18	25	0

	N.L.	P.E.I.	N.S.	N.B.	Que.	Ont.	Man.	Sask.	Alta.	B.C.	Y.T.	N.W.T.	Nvt.
IN	1,998	1,171	4,705	4,671	6,375	18,167	4,252	4,716	27,538	14,113	506	677	519
OUT	2,093	1,190	4,900	3,044	6,650	27,187	4,850	5,914	15,056	16,679	446	773	626
NET	-95	-19	-195	1,627	-275	-9,020	-598	-1,198	12,482	-2,566	60	-96	-107

Prince Edward Island quarterly components of growth from October 1, 2021 to April 1, 2024 can be seen in table 4.

TABLE 4: PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND QUARTERLY POPULATION AND COMPONENTS OF GROWTH OCTOBER 1 2021 – APRIL 1 2024

Quarter	Population	(+) Births	(-) Deaths	(+) Immigrants	(+) Other International*	(+) Interprovincial In-Migration	(-) Interprovincial Out-Migration
Oct 1, 2021	163,775	352	383	851	-634	939	705
Jan 1, 2022	164,195	323	366	652	-14	1,421	687
Apr 1, 2022	165,524	352	401	868	425	2,031	1,611
Jul 1, 2022	167,188	331	353	835	1,175	1,036	1,066
Oct 1, 2022	169,146	320	398	313	130	1,236	812
Jan 1, 2023	169,935	343	381	1,274	-94	1,818	1,105
Apr 1, 2023	171,790	379	416	694	860	1,906	1,426
Jul 1, 2023	173,787	349	362	825	1,403	1,059	1,208
Oct 1, 2023	175,853	346	411	825	-225	628	854
Jan 1, 2024	176,162	366	396	1,330	-362	1,171	1,190
Apr 1, 2024	177,081

Related downloads for this release:

PEI Population Report Quarterly PDF (179KB)

Notes:

These are preliminary data that will be revised over the coming year.

These estimates are based on 2021 Census of Population counts, adjusted for census net undercoverage and incompletely enumerated Indian reserves. To these counts, the population growth estimates for the period from May 11, 2021, to the date of the estimate are added. They are not to be confused with the 2021 Census of Population counts released on February 9, 2022.

Immigration rates are calculated by the PEI Statistics Bureau based on Statistics Canada population estimates.