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By Dave Lueneberg | Pattison Media
August 2026 vs. August 2025

Alberta leads country, among provinces, in population growth year-over-year

Sep 6, 2026 | 12:44 PM

Last week’s seasonally-adjusted Labour Force Survey not only showed declines and increases in the number of jobs, and in which sector they were, but also indicated Alberta was leading the country, among provinces, in population growth.

According to Stats-Can figures, Alberta had a 2.2 % rise in new ‘transplants’ from August 2025 to August 2026, followed by Alberta’s neighbour to the east, Saskatchewan, with an even two per cent jump.

Two of the country’s three-largest populated provinces actually fell last month when compared to August of last year – Quebec, by 0.3 % and British Columbia by 0.1 %.

Only Ontario remained in positive territory, climbing by 0.5%, but it was surpassed by all four Maritime provinces, including Newfoundland & Labrador at 0.8, historically, outpaced by the rest of the country.

According to the Government of Canada’s real time population clock at Noon, Mountain time, on Sunday, Alberta sat in fourth place with a population of 5,103,777, but its gap with B.C. continues to narrow.

Ontario led the way with 16,179,088 residents with Quebec next at 9,044,878.

British Columbia, in third, had tally of 5,673,435 residents, just under 570,000 more than Alberta.

Jobs wise, the survey found that Alberta’s labour force increased by 2.1 % year-over-year August to August, with more part-time than full-time jobs created.

by Dave Lueneberg | Pattison Media