Alberta had its smallest quarterly growth in population in four years in Q2 2025. (Photo: Paulbradyphoto | Dreamstime.com)

By David Opinko

Alberta was only Canadian province with growing population in Q3

Dec 17, 2025 | 1:56 PM

While Alberta had its smallest population growth in four years, it still led the country.

Statistics Canada has released its latest population estimates, covering the period of July 1 to September 30, 2025.

Nationally, the population decreased by 76,068 (0.2 per cent) people to 41,575,585, marking the largest quarterly drop on record.

The agency attributes this largely to a decline in non-permanent residents, which fell by 176,479. That is the biggest reduction in non-permanent residents in a single quarter since 1971.

The biggest drops in non-permanent residents were seen in Ontario (-107,280), B.C. (-26,242), Quebec (-15,989), and Alberta (-10,605).

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Stats Canada says Alberta was the only province to have a net gain in population, while Nunavut was the only territory to achieve this.

Alberta’s population at the end of September was 5,040,871.

Growing by 11,525 people, it was the smallest increase provincially since the second quarter of 2021.

For the first time in many years, births accounted for a bigger portion of population growth in Alberta than immigration.

The natural increase was 5,676 (49.2 per cent), while interprovincial migration was 5,652 (40 per cent), and international immigration was just 197 (1.7 per cent)

Compare that to the third quarter of 2023, where Alberta had its biggest single-quarter jump in population ever at 63,597. In that period, there were 42,135 international immigrants (66.3 per cent), 16,514 people who moved to Alberta from other parts of Canada, and 4,948 births (7.8 per cent).

Use the interactive table below to learn more about population changes in Canada: