To explain intra-provincial migration within BC using census data.
- In 2015/2016, British Columbia and Ontario were the principal beneficiaries of net interprovincial migration among the provinces in Canada.
- Three of the four Atlantic provinces posted gains through interprovincial migration in 2015/2016, New Brunswick was the lone exception. This was the first annual period since 2009/2010 that more than one Atlantic province added persons through interprovincial migration.
- Alberta and Quebec had the largest interprovincial migratory losses in absolute terms, while Saskatchewan and Manitoba had the lowest interprovincial migratory rates among the provinces. Alberta also had the largest fluctuation of interprovincial migration from one annual period to the next since the early 1980s.
- The largest migratory flows in Canada were from Alberta to British Columbia and Ontario.
- The country’s three largest census divisions (CDs) – Toronto, Greater Vancouver and Montréal – all recorded losses through intraprovincial migration.
- The greatest net flows between CDs all originated from one of the three largest CDs (or in Toronto’s case, its directly neighbouring CDs) to the surrounding more suburban CDs.
- Led by the Simcoe (Ontario) and Capital (British Columbia) CDs, the 10 largest internal migration growths in absolute numbers among CDs were all in Ontario and British Columbia. The 10 largest declines were observed in multiple provinces, particularly Alberta.
Key statistics
- Number of interprovincial migrants in Canada:
2014/2015: 283,809 migrants
2015/2016: 277,029 migrants - Interprovincial migration rates in Canada:
2014/2015: 8.0 per thousand
2015/2016: 7.7 per thousand - Provinces with the highest net interprovincial migration rates (2015/2016):
1 – British Columbia (+5.6 per thousand)
2 – Nova Scotia (+0.8 per thousand)
3 – Ontario (+0.7 per thousand)
This article presents the most recent internal migration trends in Canada from 2015/2016 (July 1 to June 30). Internal migration represents all movements of people within Canada’s geographical boundaries, involving a change in usual place of residence. It denotes movements of people from one province or territory to another (interprovincial migration) or from one region to another within the same province or territory (intraprovincial migration).
The analysis will cover a variety of migration indicators for the 2015/2016 annual period, divided into five sections: interprovincial migration, net interprovincial migration, interprovincial flows of in-migrants and out-migrants, age structures of interprovincial migrants, and internal migration between census divisions. A short section also gives an overview of preliminary data for 2016/201
