Despite declining birthrates that have dampened its rate of natural increase, Canada's population grew by 1.07% year over year in the first quarter of 2008.

This figure represents the strongest year-over-year increase since the fourth quarter of 2002. A net inflow of 60,200 people accelerated population growth in the first quarter and marked the highest first-quarter net gain in international migration since 2002.

Although the number of new permanent immigrants was up by 5,300 people in first-quarter 2008 versus the same quarter of 2007, the level remained close to the average of 53,200 recorded over the past eight years.

The big boost to international migration in the first quarter was a 16,300 increase in non-permanent residents, the largest net first-quarter increase since 1990. According to Statistics Canada, non-permanent residents are people who entered the country on a work or study permit or were refugee claimants.

From a provincial perspective, although Alberta's population growth of +1.82% year over year continued to outpace the rest of the country, its leadership position is being seriously challenged by its eastern neighbour, Saskatchewan.

In the first quarter, the "wheat province" saw population growth hit a 55-year high of 1.80%. This growth comes primarily from the booming resource sector, which has attracted 14,294 net migrants to the province over the past four quarters.

Although British Columbia slipped to third place in terms of overall population growth in first-quarter 2008, the combination of two factors — the highest level of net interprovincial migration in the country and sustained growth of net international migration — pushed the province's population up by 1.49% year over year. This figure is just slightly below the 10-year high of 1.50% reached in the final quarter of 2007.

Ontario's population grew by 0.99% year over year in first-quarter 2008, despite the loss of just over 16,000 people to other provinces over the past year. In fact, the 0.99% figure marks Ontario's strongest rate of growth since third-quarter 2006.

In summary, although its high cost of housing and recent tax changes are likely to dampen the net inflow of migrants into British Columbia, population growth in the four western provinces will probably continue to outpace the rest of the country for the foreseeable future.