A new report from Quebec’s statistics institute says many of the province's regions grew at a record or near-record pace between 2023 and 2024, due in large part to immigration, while deaths outnumbered births for the first time.
Montreal led the way, adding more than 91,000 people between July 2023 and July 2024 for a 4.2-per-cent growth rate — one of the highest ever recorded in any region.
"Montreal's growth alone accounts for 44 per cent of the total growth recorded in Quebec," the Institut de la statistique du Québec said Thursday in a news release. Quebec City set a new record at 2.4 per cent growth, while the city of Laval and the Outaouais and Mauricie regions followed closely behind.
The institute said the growth is due mostly to immigration and temporary immigration in particular. Non-permanent residents, such as temporary workers, international students and asylum seekers, outnumbered newly admitted permanent residents in all regions and contributed to the majority of the growth, it noted.
The province added a total of about 208,000 people between July 2023 and July 2024, or 2.3 per cent — the highest growth rate recorded for an equivalent period since comparable data collection began in the early 1970s. Every region in the province except the Côte-Nord grew, the report said.
"The majority of (regions) recorded one of their strongest growths, if not the strongest, since the data became available," the authors wrote.
Quebec Premier François Legault has taken measures in recent months to reduce the number of temporary immigrants in the province, citing a desire to protect the French language and relieve pressure on housing, education, and health care.
Those announcements have included freezing some immigration streams, including for some low-wage temporary foreign workers and two programs that normally provide paths to permanent residency. Legault has also repeatedly called on the federal government to do more to limit the number of temporary newcomers arriving in the country and ensure asylum seekers are resettled more equally among the provinces.
Legault said last year that the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec had doubled to 600,000 from 300,000 in two years.
In its report, the institute also said the province recorded slightly more deaths than births during the one-year span between 2023 and 2024 — the first time since data collection began that Quebec has had a natural population decline over an equivalent time frame.
Deaths outnumbered births in 12 of the province's 17 regions, resulting in an overall balance of 1,150 more deaths than births. However, Montreal, Laval, Montérégie and Outaouais recorded more births than deaths. Between July 2022 and July 2023, there were 696 more births than deaths across the province.
Northern Quebec is the only region of the province where births remain the main contributor to population growth, the report added.
