Moncton, Halifax Top List of Fastest-Growing Urban Regions, Statistics Canada Says

A passenger ferry, operated by Halifax Transit, makes its way across the Halifax harbour to the Woodside ferry terminal in Dartmouth, N.S., on Aug. 2, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Doug Ives)

Statistics Canada says that Halifax and Moncton, N.B., were the fastest-growing urban regions in Canada last year.

The agency said today that the Moncton metropolitan area grew by 5.3 percent between July 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022, while Nova Scotia’s capital grew by 4.4 percent.

The report says their growth rates are more than twice that of Canada as a whole and mark the first time in more than 20 years that the two fastest-growing metropolitan areas are both found in Atlantic Canada.

Statistics Canada says large urban regions experienced a significant rebound of their population growth in the past year, with many seeing their fastest rate of increase since 2001 or 2002.

The agency says most of the growth in Canada’s big cities is fuelled by international migration, which rose last year after being limited by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Montreal and Thunder Bay, Ont., grew at the slowest pace of the major metropolitan areas over the last year, with growth rates of 0.9 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.