PEI Population Report Quarterly

Population Report, First Quarter 2025

DIAGRAM 1: PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND POPULATION, QUARTERLY, 2020 - 2025

On June 18, 2025 Statistics Canada published its provincial population estimates for the first quarter of 2025. The data shows Prince Edward Island’s population was estimated to be 180,029 as of April 1, 2025. This represents a yearly increase of 2,711 people or a 1.5 percent annual growth rate. This is the fifth highest year-over-year growth rate among provinces and territories, behind Alberta (2.9%), Nunavut (1.8%), Saskatchewan (1.7%), and Yukon (1.6%). PEI’s year-over-year population growth has slowed in each of the past six quarters, after reaching an all-time high of 4.0 percent during the third quarter of 2023.

Canada’s population increased by 510,417 people year-over-year to reach 41,548,787 as of April 1, 2025, an increase of 1.2 percent over one year ago.

The quarterly estimates since January 1, 2023 and growth rates for Canada and Prince Edward Island can be seen in Table 1.

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

All jurisdictions saw a year-over-year population increase April 1, 2025 compared to April 1, 2024. Population estimates for April 1, 2024 and 2025 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, 2025 are also included.

TABLE 2: POPULATION OF PROVINCES & TERRITORIES, APRIL 1, 2024, 2025 & ANNUAL GROWTH RATES

Components of Growth

The total increase in PEI’s population during the first quarter of 2025 (January 1, 2025 to March 31, 2025) was 749 people.

Natural Increase

There were 383 births and 450 deaths on Prince Edward Island from January 1, 2025 to March 31, 2025, resulting in natural growth (births minus deaths) of -67. Deaths have outpaced births in each quarter since the third quarter of 2021.

International Migration

During first quarter 2025, 815 international immigrants came to the province. At a rate of 4.5 per thousand¹, the province had the second highest quarterly immigration rate in the country, behind Yukon at 5.1 per thousand. The immigration rate for Canada was 2.5 per thousand.

Total net international migration was estimated to be +318 people during the first quarter of 2025. This consisted of the aforementioned 815 international immigrants plus 609 non-permanent residents (NPRs)² and 19 returning Canadians entering the province, while 1,074 NPRs and 51 international emigrants left the province. Net international migration for PEI over the last 12-month period (April 2024 to March 2025) was 2,676. This compares to 5,451 over the previous 12-month period.

It was estimated that 609 non-permanent residents came to PEI during the first quarter of 2025, while 1,074 NPRs left the province for a net change of -465, or -6.3 percent. As of April 1, 2025, there were 10,685 NPRs on PEI consisting of 5,659 work permit holders, 3,640 study permit holders, 884 with both work and study permits, 372 other permit holders, and 130 asylum claimants. The number of study permit holders has declined 13.1 percent since April 1, 2024, while the number of work permit holders dropped 2.5 percent over the same period.

Inter-provincial Migration

A total of 1,327 inter-provincial migrants came to PEI during the first quarter of 2025, while 829 people left the province for other areas of Canada, for a net interprovincial gain of 498. This compares to a net gain of 69 people over the same period in 2024. As shown in Table 3, the primary source of PEI’s inter-provincial in-migrants during this period was from Ontario, followed by Quebec and New Brunswick. The main destinations of out-migrants from Prince Edward Island were Ontario, New Brunswick, and Alberta. Ontario gained the most from inter-provincial migration, with 32.3 percent of all interprovincial migrants from other provinces destined for Ontario.

TABLE 3: ORIGIN & DESTINATION OF INTER-PROVINCIAL MIGRANTS, JANUARY 1, 2025 TO MARCH 31, 2025

Prince Edward Island quarterly components of growth from October 1, 2022 to April 1, 2025 can be seen in table 4.

TABLE 4: PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND QUARTERLY POPULATION AND COMPONENTS OF GROWTH OCTOBER 1 2022 – APRIL 1 2025

DIAGRAM 2: PEI COMPONENTS OF GROWTH JANUARY 1 2025 – MARCH 31 2025

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.

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

2 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.

Source: Statistics Canada

Table 17-10-0009-01, Estimates of population, Canada, provinces and territories, quarterly

Table 17-10-0040-01, International migration components, Canada, provinces and territories, quarterly

Table 17-10-0020-01, Interprovincial migrants, Canada, provinces and territories, quarterly

Table 17-10-0045-01, Estimates of interprovincial migrants by province or territory of origin and destination, quarterly

Table 17-10-0059-01, Estimates of the components of natural increase, Canada, provinces and territories, quarterly

Table 17-10-0121-01, Estimates of the number of non-permanent residents by type, quarterly

Prepared by  PEI Statistics Bureau