Alberta's population grows by nearly 50K, fuelled by interprovincial migration

Edmonton's downtown in an undated photo. (CTV News Edmonton)

Alberta’s population continues to grow, adding nearly 50,000 people in the first quarter of 2024.

Statistics Canada released its updated quarterly population estimates on Wednesday, showing Alberta’s population at 4,849,906 – up from 4,800,768, as of April 1.

The province’s growth continues to be fuelled by inter-provincial migration. While most provinces and territories saw net losses in exchanges, Alberta led the way adding 12,482 people from other provinces.

New Brunswick (+1,627) and Yukon (+60) were the other two provinces that saw a gain from interprovincial movement.

This was the 11th straight quarter that Alberta experienced net gains, following losses in 19 out of 24 quarters from the third quarter of 2015 to the second quarter of 2021.

Most of the people moving to Alberta were coming from Ontario (9,398 in-migrants) and British Columbia (9,218 in-migrants).

But those provinces were also the top picks for people choosing to leave Alberta, with 5,744 people moving to B.C. and 3,893 people heading east to Ontario.

Nationally, Canada’s population surpassed 41 million people in the first quarter of 2024.

The population increased by 242,673 – rising to a total of 41,012,563 as of April 1. The growth rate of 0.6 per cent matches what the country experienced in the first and fourth quarters of 2023.

Almost all of the population growth in Canada in the first quarter of 2024 was due to international migration – accounting for 240,955 people, or 99.3 per cent.