Nova Scotia’s Population Growth

Last year’s population increase of 28,608 was by far largest annual population growth in the modern data series (that started in 1971) as well as in historical records starting in 1951 and 1926.

Nova Scotia’s extraordinary population growth was attributable to a sharp increase in immigration (13,816) as well as interprovincial in-migration (27,640).  There were more interprovincial out-migrants than in the previous year (13,561) but net interprovincial migration was a strong contributor to population growth.  There were a small number of emigrants leaving Nova Scotia for another country (313) while net change in non-permanent residents (such as students and temporary foreign workers) added 3,816 to the population.  Although the pace of births increased to 7,990 this was offset by a rising number of deaths (10,780).