This statistic shows the estimated population of British Columbia, Canada from 2000 to 2023. In 2023, the estimated population of British Columbia was about 5.52 million people. This is an increase from 2000, when there were about 4.04 million people living in British Columbia.

Estimated number of persons by quarter of a year and by year, Canada, provinces and territories.

It is presumed that the first humans migrated from Siberia to North America approximately twelve thousand years ago, where they then moved southwards to warmer lands. It was not until many centuries later that humans returned to the north and began to settle regions that are now part of Canada. Despite a few short-lived Viking settlements on Newfoundland around the turn of the first millennium CE, the Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), became the first European to explore the coast of North America in the late 1400s. The French and British crowns both made claims to areas of Canada throughout the sixteenth century, but real colonization and settlement did not begin until the early seventeenth century. Over the next 150 years, France and Britain competed to take control of the booming fur and fishing trade, and to expand their overseas empires. In the Seven Year's War, Britain eventually defeated the French colonists in North America, through superior numbers and a stronger agriculture resources in the southern colonies, and the outcome of the war saw France cede practically all of it's colonies in North America to the British.

Increased migration and declining native populations

The early 1800s saw a large influx of migrants into Canada, with the Irish Potato Famine bringing the first wave of mass-migration to the country, with further migration coming from Scandinavia and Northern Europe. It is estimated that the region received just shy of one million migrants from the British Isles alone, between 1815 and 1850, which helped the population grow to 2.5 million in the mid-1800s and 5.5 million in 1900. It is also estimated that infectious diseases killed around 25 to 33 percent of all Europeans who migrated to Canada before 1891, and around a third of the Canadian population is estimated to have emigrated southwards to the United States in the 1871-1896 period. From the time of European colonization until the mid-nineteenth century, the native population of Canada dropped from roughly 500,000 (some estimates put it as high as two million) to just over 100,000; this was due to a mixture of disease, starvation and warfare, instigated by European migration to the region. The native population was generally segregated and oppressed until the second half of the 1900s; Native Canadians were given the vote in 1960, and, despite their complicated and difficult history, the Canadian government has made significant progress in trying to include indigenous cultures in the country's national identity in recent years. As of 2020, Indigenous Canadians make up more than five percent of the total Canadian population, and a higher birth rate means that this share of the population is expected to grow in the coming decades.

Independence and modern Canada

Canadian independence was finally acknowledged in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster, putting it on equal terms with the United Kingdom within the Commonwealth; virtually granting independence and sovereignty until the Canada Act of 1982 formalized it. Over the past century, Canada has had a relatively stable political system and economy (although it was hit particularly badly by the Wall Street Crash of 1929). Canada entered the First World War with Britain, and as an independent Allied Power in the Second World War; Canadian forces played pivotal roles in a number of campaigns, notably Canada's Hundred Days in WWI, and the country lost more than 100,000 men across both conflicts. The economy boomed in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a stream of socially democratic programs such as universal health care and the Canadian pension plan were introduced, which contributed to a rise in the standard of living. The post war period also saw various territories deciding to join Canada, with Newfoundland joining in 1949, and Nunavut in 1999. Today Canada is among the most highly ranked in countries in terms of civil liberties, quality of life and economic growth. It promotes and welcomes immigrants from all over the world and, as a result, it has one of the most ethnically diverse and multicultural populations of any country in the world. As of 2020, Canada's population stands at around 38 million people, and continues to grow due to high migration levels and life expectancy, and a steady birth rate.

Sub-provincial population estimates and projections by age and gender for a variety of region types. Customizable breakdowns for counts and additional statistics are available via BC Stats' Population App. Estimates: A population estimate is a measure of the current or historical population. BC Stats annually releases total population estimates for sub-provincial region types. These estimates are consistent in aggregate with the July 1st provincial level estimates produced by Statistics Canada. More information can be found on BC Stats' Population Estimates page. Projections: A population projection is a forecast of future population growth. BC Stats applies the Component/Cohort-Survival method to project the population. This method "grows" the population from the latest base year estimate by forecasting births, deaths and migration by age. These forecasts are based on past trends modified to account for possible future changes and, consequently, should be viewed as only one possible scenario of future population. Projections are also released annually and are as of July 1st. More information can be found on BC Stats' Population Projections page. Wondering about the location of a particular region or its boundaries? Check out the Administrative Boundaries page for more information.

Until the 1800s, population growth was incredibly slow on a global level. The global population was estimated to have been around 188 million people in the year 1CE, and did not reach one billion until around 1803. However, since the 1800s, a phenomenon known as the demographic transition has seen population growth skyrocket, reaching eight billion people in 2023, and this is expected to peak at over 10 billion in the 2080s.

Chart and table of Canada population from 1950 to 2025. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

Population is the sum of births plus in-migration, and it signifies the total market size possible in the area. This is an important metric for economic developers to measure their economic health and investment attraction. Businesses also use this as a metric for market size when evaluating startup, expansion or relocation decisions.

Estimated number of persons on July 1, by 5-year age groups and gender, and median age, for Canada, provinces and territories.

In 2020, there were 1,021,356 registered Indians in Canada. Between 2000 and 2020, the number of registered Indians in Canada experienced an increase, going from some 670 thousand to over one million.

Registered Indians Registered Indians in Canada are all First Nations people who are, as the name suggests, registered as an officially recognized Indian by the Canadian government. No Inuit or Métis is a Registered Indian under Canadian law, leaving only certain First Nations peoples as qualifiers. The word “Indian” is a legal term in this case and has otherwise fallen out of favor. It has been replaced by First Nations, a term used to describe all Canadian aboriginal people who are neither Métis nor Inuit.

Registered Indian status affords benefits and rights not granted to non-Registered Indians including access to reserves and self-governance within them, exemption of federal and provincial taxes to those living on reserve, and postsecondary education financial assistance. The Indian Act of 1951 established the current Indian Register and was revised in 1985 to include people that had been wrongly excluded by the original law.

The number of Registered Indians has grown significantly since 2000 and currently the largest population resides in Ontario, which also has the largest overall population of aboriginal peoples in Canada. British Columbia is home to the largest number of Indian bands, at 199 in 2020.

This table presents the 2021 and 2016 population and dwelling counts, land area and population density for Canada, the provinces and the territories. It also shows the percentage change in the population and dwelling counts between 2016 and 2021.

Contained within the 3rd Edition (1957) of the Atlas of Canada is a plate that shows the distribution of population in what is now Canada circa 1851, 1871, 1901, 1921 and 1941. The five maps display the boundaries of the various colonies, provinces and territories for each date. Also shown on these five maps are the locations of principal cities and settlements. These places are shown on all of the maps for reference purposes even though they may not have been in existence in the earlier years. Each map is accompanied by a pie chart providing the percentage distribution of Canadian population by province and territory corresponding to the date the map is based on. It should be noted that the pie chart entitled Percentage Distribution of Total Population, 1851, refers to the whole of what was then British North America. The name Canada in this chart refers to the province of Canada which entered confederation in 1867 as Ontario and Quebec. The other pie charts, however, show only percentage distribution of population in what was Canada at the date indicated. Three additional graphs are included on this plate and show changes in the distribution of the population of Canada from 1867 to 1951, changes in the percentage distribution of the population of Canada by provinces and territories from 1867 to 1951 and elements in the growth of the population of Canada for each ten-year period from 1891 to 1951.

Components of population growth, annual: births, deaths, immigrants, emigrants, returning emigrants, net temporary emigrants, net interprovincial migration, net non-permanent residents, residual deviation.

There were over one million registered Indians in Canada as of December 2020. The region with the largest Indian population was Ontario, with 222 thousand, followed by Manitoba, which counted 164 thousand Indians. The regions with the smallest Indian populations were Yukon, and Northwest Territories.

This table contains 13 series, with data for years 1926 - 1960 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years), and was last released on 2000-02-18. This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (13 items: Canada; Newfoundland and Labrador; Prince Edward Island; Nova Scotia ...).

This statistic shows the population of British Columbia, Canada in 2023, by age and sex. In 2023, there were 581,570 females 65 years of age and over in British Columbia.

In 2048, the population in Manitoba is projected to reach about 1.84 million people. This is compared to a population of 1.46 million people in 2024.

Projected population according to various scenarios, age groups and gender, Canada, provinces and territories.

Housing Assessment Resource Tools (HART) This dataset contains 2 tables and 5 files which draw upon data from the 2021 Census of Canada. The tables are a custom order and contain data pertaining to older adults and housing need. The 2 tables have 6 dimensions in common and 1 dimension that is unique to each table. Table 1's unique dimension is the "Ethnicity / Indigeneity status" dimension which contains data fields related to visible minority and Indigenous identity within the population in private households. Table 2's unique dimension is "Structural type of dwelling and Period of Construction" which contains data fields relating to the structural type and period of construction of the dwelling. Each of the two tables is then split into multiple files based on geography. Table 1 has two files: Table 1.1 includes Canada, Provinces and Territories (14 geographies), CDs of NWT (6), CDs of Yukon (1) and CDs of Nunavut (3); and Table 1.2 includes Canada and the CMAs of Canada (44). Table 2 has three files: Table 2.1 includes Canada, Provinces and Territories (14), CDs of NWT (6), CDs of Yukon (1) and CDs of Nunavut (3); Table 2.2 includes Canada and the CMAs of Canada excluding Ontario and Quebec (20 geographies); and Table 2.3 includes Canada and the CMAs of Canada that are in Ontario and Quebec (25 geographies). The dataset is in Beyond 20/20 (.ivt) format. The Beyond 20/20 browser is required in order to open it. This software can be freely downloaded from the Statistics Canada website: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/public/beyond20-20 (Windows only). For information on how to use Beyond 20/20, please see: http://odesi2.scholarsportal.info/documentation/Beyond2020/beyond20-quickstart.pdf https://wiki.ubc.ca/Library:Beyond_20/20_Guide Custom order from Statistics Canada includes the following dimensions and data fields: Geography: - Country of Canada as a whole - All 10 Provinces (Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island (PEI), Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia) as a whole - All 3 Territories (Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon), as a whole as well as all census divisions (CDs) within the 3 territories - All 43 census metropolitan areas (CMAs) in Canada Data Quality and Suppression: - The global non-response rate (GNR) is an important measure of census data quality. It combines total non-response (households) and partial non-response (questions). A lower GNR indicates a lower risk of non-response bias and, as a result, a lower risk of inaccuracy. The counts and estimates for geographic areas with a GNR equal to or greater than 50% are not published in the standard products. The counts and estimates for these areas have a high risk of non-response bias, and in most cases, should not be released. - Area suppression is used to replace all income characteristic data with an 'x' for geographic areas with populations and/or number of households below a specific threshold. If a tabulation contains quantitative income data (e.g., total income, wages), qualitative data based on income concepts (e.g., low income before tax status) or derived data based on quantitative income variables (e.g., indexes) for individuals, families or households, then the following rule applies: income characteristic data are replaced with an 'x' for areas where the population is less than 250 or where the number of private households is less than 40. Source: Statistics Canada - When showing count data, Statistics Canada employs random rounding in order to reduce the possibility of identifying individuals within the tabulations. Random rounding transforms all raw counts to random rounded counts. Reducing the possibility of identifying individuals within the tabulations becomes pertinent for very small (sub)populations. All counts are rounded to a base of 5, meaning they will end in either 0 or 5. The random rounding algorithm controls the results and rounds the unit value of the count according to a predetermined frequency. Counts ending in 0 or 5 are not changed. Universe: Full Universe: Population aged 55 years and over in owner and tenant households with household total income greater than zero in non-reserve non-farm private dwellings. Definition of Households examined for Core Housing Need: Private, non-farm, non-reserve, owner- or renter-households with incomes greater than zero and shelter-cost-to-income ratios less than 100% are assessed for 'Core Housing Need.' Non-family Households with at least one household maintainer aged 15 to 29 attending school are considered not to be in Core Housing Need, regardless of their housing circumstances. Data Fields: Table 1: Age / Gender (12) 1. Total – Population 55 years and over 2. Men+ 3. Women+ 4. 55 to 64 years 5. Men+ 6. Women+ 7. 65+ years 8. Men+ 9. Women+ 10. 85+ 11. Men+ 12. Women+ Housing indicators (13) 1. Total – Private Households by core housing need status 2. Households below one standard only...

This table shows the 2021 population and dwelling counts for reported forward sortation areas.

This table presents the 2021 population counts for census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations, and their population centres and rural areas.