Immigration is a Major Contributor to Ottawa's Population Growth
Did You Know...?
Each year, Ottawa receives more immigrants than all of the Atlantic provinces combined.
In 2001, Ottawa attracted about the same number of immigrants as the cities of Winnipeg, Hamilton and London - combined.
Between 1981 and 2001, Ottawa's immigrant population increased by 86% - twice the rate of Ottawa's non-immigrant population (41%)
Over the past twenty years, immigration has become an increasingly important part of Ottawa's population growth. During the 1980s, 23% of the city's population growth resulted from immigration. In the first half of the 1990s, immigrants accounted for 35% of the growth in Ottawa's population. The latest Census shows that between 1996 and 2001 immigration made up an even bigger share (38%) of population growth.
The 2001 Census tells us that 168,120 immigrants live in the Ottawa Metropolitan Area (this does not include the roughly 8,000 non-permanent residents living in Ottawa, such as foreign students or foreign temporary workers).
Like the Canadian-born population, Ottawa's immigrants are divided more or less equally between women and men (52% are females). Unlike the Canadian-born population however, Ottawa's immigrant population is more likely to be comprised of so-called "working-age" adults; that is, persons between the ages of 25 and 64. Sixty-nine per cent of immigrants are this age, compared with 53% of the Canadian-born. Recent immigrants are most likely to be between the ages of 25 and 442.
Immigrants make up a growing share of Ottawa's population
As Canada's capital, a magnet for high tech, and with two world class universities, Ottawa is no stranger to migrants. Some come from abroad, and some from other parts of Canada. In fact, the number of Ottawa residents born in a province other than is actually larger than the city's immigrant population!
First-generation immigrants - from countries other than Canada - make up one out of five area residents (21%). This is up slightly from 17% in 1981.
Of course, many of Ottawa's immigrants have lived in Canada for a long time - about 40% for more than 20 years. On the other hand, 38% of Ottawa's immigrants have lived in Canada for 10 years or less. These recent immigrants make up about 8% of the City's overall population.
2 Age statistics based on 1996 Census data. National level data from the 2001 Census also shows that the majority of recent immigrants are working age. Return