Canada’s rapidly aging population and declining immigration levels are “reshaping” the country’s economy and consumption patterns, new analysis from the Bank of Canada shows.
The rapid population growth in the first half of this decade, when Canada’s population grew annually by three per cent after 50 years of steady 1.2 per cent growth, added new workers to the economy and “helped ease labour shortages” in the country, the report said.
However, it also added pressure on housing and social services.
In 2025, Canada’s population slowed to 0.5 per cent – the slowest rate of growth in more than a century after 150 years of steady growth. This immediately followed the federal government’s decision in 2024 to reduce immigration levels.
“In the coming years, fewer new immigrants will arrive. Canadians will also continue to get older. This will affect the size of our workforce, what we buy and how much the economy can produce,” the report said.
The housing sector typically responds much more slowly to higher population levels than businesses that can quickly ramp up production by hiring more workers, it said.
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Fewer immigrants will mean reduced demand for housing, which could lower pressure on housing costs, however, demand for other goods and services is expected to also decline sharply, leading to a slowdown of Canada’s economic growth.
“Less immigration will mean fewer workers and weaker demand for other goods and services. The economy won’t grow as fast as a result,” the report said.
Canada is also aging, the report said, noting that the median age in Canada has gone from 26 in 1971 to over 40 in 2026.
An older population will mean the goods and services Canada produces and consumes will also change, it said.
With the baby boomer generation largely having reached retirement age, Canada will see an increase in the cost of travel services such as flights and accommodations since retirees tend to travel more.
At the same time, the demand for pharmaceuticals, adaptive living products and supportive home care services will also rise.
“Given Canada’s system of universal health care, it could also change how much governments need to spend on hospitals and long-term care—as well as the level of taxation needed to fund these services,” the report said.
An older, rapidly retiring population also means there will be fewer young workers to replace them in the workforce. This means that some sectors, which could see massive labour shortages, will also see wages rise and businesses try to attract the best workers.
This could also push up prices and contribute to inflation, the report added.
Fails to mention that an aging population with fewer workers is a result of buisness culture and an economy that requires two working parents who increasingly need extra jobs to afford the cost of living in this country. Having two working adults for a household has led to lower birth rates as family size decreases because two working adults cant handle the load of managing large families or more than two children. We’ve done this to ourselves with the influence of wealth, materialism, and the constant need to be working. Immigration wouldn’t be needed if governments and buisnesses alike influenced and advocated for families to have more children and built a system that allows for parents to have appropriate time and affordability to raise healthy and productive children instead of relying on daycare and technology to raise them.
We need certain types of immigration to fill jobs we don’t have enough people for. Doctors, certain blue collar, etc. Also our birth rate is declining and we need immigration to help pay for social programs.
Cue all the dumb racists in the comments whining and complaining. Global news lets you say whatever terrible thing comes out.
Yeah lets blame it on aging seniors, If Carney would stop giving canada”s money away to foreign countries and start using the resources we already have. We “d be a rich country in no time.
who ever came up with this fake information in the bank of Canada they need to be fired and be replaced with an immigrant
global news keep spinning that fake liberal propaganda everyone knows Canada is over ran with immigrant’s
low immigration?????? someone’s is full of s^^^ Canada is over ran with east Indians so much it has turned into a third world county
Did I read that right?? Low immigration?? That is the dumbest statement I have read all year. Even the long time immigrants are complaining about the immigration explosion being over the top here. Morons.
Low immigration? I had to double check it’s not The Beaverton article.
You mean low SKILLED immigration? Canada lets anyone in with a Pulse specially at roxham road.
I think Global misspelt Poland.
Canada, low immigration numbers? They don’t mix. All those handy dandy Indian doctors and engineers liberals let in, flaunting firearms, shooting up homes. Ya, sure. Elbows up boomers.
GREAT NEWS !!! CLOSE THE BORDERS FOR GOOD !!! WE ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH D I RT BAGS
THE BANK OF CANADA IS UTTERLY LOST.
WHO CAN AFFORD LARGE FAMILIES THESE DAYS? AS FOR IMMIGRATION, HOW MANY NON ENGLISH SPEAKING IMMIGRANTS ARE PLUNDERING THE ECONOMY? BUYING UP PROPERTIES, DEVELOPING LAND AND MAKING THEMSELVES SMALL EMPIRES.
ALBERTA’S NATIONAL PARKS ARE GOVERNED BY ASIAN AND ORIENTAL IMMIGRANTS. AND WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?
NOT TO CANADA, ANYWHERE BUT. YOU CAN BET YOUR SWEET BIPPY ON THAT.
Low immigration????? Lol
Low immigration? You know you are lying you goof. You think we are stupid? Elbows up sure is though.
Low immigration, lmao… no way.. say it ain’t so.. low immigration… really.. come on you can’t be serious! 1 in 16 Canadians have only been in this country less than 3 years.. low immigration… really? Is the bank of canada serious or is this a bad attempt at comedy?
Canada is now as bad if not worth than the 3rd world countries these people came from . and many who come here have a culture incompatible with western ideas. Canada is a lawless and unjust dangerous country that pretends to be safe
There are lots of youth that are unemployed and lots of people that can work but choose social assistance. Our tax dollars continue to pay for temporary foreign workers for multi billion dollar corporations. My tax dollars shouldn’t be assisting walmart, tim Hortons etc. This is a massive scam ripping off hard working canadians.
And as for the aging population, people are forced to retire at 65 or they lose their benefits and part of their CPP retirement money. The media needs to stay focused on this topic.
The real problem is 11 years of left wing TrudeauCarney fiascos… one after another!
Low immigration? Have they been to Atlantic Canada recently? It’s Ind ia with a toque.
Reshaping the economy? Like two airplanes “reshaped” the New York skyline?
Someone who posted the first (bottom) comment has pointed out the alleged benefits of immigration in China.
Sorry, your claim is not supported by facts.
So, here are some actual numbers:
China net migration for 2025 was -268,126.00, a 15.95% decline from 2024.
China net migration for 2024 was -318,992.00, a 43.81% decline from 2023.
China net migration for 2023 was -567,724.00, a 93.2% increase from 2022.
China net migration for 2022 was -293,846.00, a 22.62% decline from 2021.
Net migration is the net total of migrants during the period, that is, the total number of immigrants less the annual number of emigrants, including both citizens and noncitizens. Data are five-year estimates.
It’s an up and down trend, more down than up. Not to mention China had one child policy, from 1979 to 2015, to actually shrink the population.
Immigrants, when SKILLED, can greatly contribute to the economy.
UNSKILLED masses who only came to Canada to mooch of the taxpayers, should be sent back. Should never been allowed in in the first place.
Low immigration? This is deranged
… aging…
Aging population, maybe, but where did they get the “declining immigration”?!?
If anything, the uncontrolled immigration collapsed our housing, healthcare, and other social aspects.
As for the unsustainable immigration, if you do let in one guy, with his unskilled wife, and their six (and counting) kids, it’s obvious this could create problems.
Providing that one guy speaks one of our official languages and he’s actually willing to work. Which is the scenario we’ve witnessed for the past 10+ years.
But sure it’s fun to blame the “again population” – the very people who built this country and contributed to the various government coffers all their lives!
smh
Bring as many in as you want, I’ll be in Alberta country where they’ll all be REMIGRATED to their shathole countries!
Wanna bet the Liberals will “coincidentally” come out with increased immigration levels. The collusion is plain and obvious. The Liberal agenda to flood Canada with immigrants to increase the population to 100 million by 2035 is well underway. Most of whom will be unvetted and unskilled and will end up being a burden on Canadians.
annual population decline .. but see reports that Liberal have lied about lower immigration. Fact is immigration has NOT declined.
so Bank of Canada is believing the Liberal lies about low immigration???? wow and we are to trust that bunch.
It would be because of this useless Liberal government. No ,no. Gotta blame everything else. Carney is the problem. He a total moron
Declining immigration? We have gone through 12 years of Liberal open borders that allowed millions into Canada unvetted. Carney himself said he would cut immigration levels because they are too high. This article is just more propaganda.
Not enough workers? There is a whole demographic of able bodied people that have no excuse not to find employment but choose to remain unemployed.
Pretty superficial take from the Bank of Canada….there are very complex issues that largely go left out or skimmed over. Wealth transfer being one such issue….
The Liberal policies of the last
dozen years have been driven by dreams untethered to reality.
We are quickly becoming a welfare state..resource extraction became a villain instead of the golden egg…reckless importation of refugees took center stage and was gleefully referred to as immigration…with dreadful consequences..health care, housing and schools were overwhelmed…terrible liberalism ideals are destroying our standard of living and our ability to help our own people in need. Time for a reset.
I think we need a few million more uber drivers!
Low immigration? Canada’s population has increased around 25 percent since 2015. How does that qualify as “low”? Immigration has not been based on what the person has to offer Canada. Vast majority of the 10 million plus entered Canada as refugees, asylum seekers, students and bogus student visa holders who never set foot in any school. Bank of Canada needs a fact checker it seems to me.
If the liberals don’t reverse course on their big spending high taxes platform soon, then there won’t be any Canadians of child bearing age left. But that doesn’t matter to them when they can import millions of unskilled people into the country to artificially balloon the nation’s gdp. But then, who will pay all the taxes the liberals need to keep this farce going? Who will pay to keep giving “refugees” $80,000 a year with free healthcare services that those born here have to pay out of pocket for? Who will pay for them to give public money to their friends and family?
Or perhaps the banks and politicians can take their foot off the throats of Canadians so it’s affordable to have families in this country, so we don’t have to rely on immigration. Perhaps big talking Carny can start getting his major projects on the go so there is some investment in this country. For god sakes these banks and politicians need to take some ownership.
Funny in 2014 under conservative leadership and policies Canadians were the richest middle class in the world without millions of no skilled immigrants.
Can’t wait till USA takes over cunada and starts deporting millions back to their shitehole countries!
Welfare for everyone !…except Canadiens of course.
How about you’re socialist policies causing soaring cost of living making it impossible for Canadians to have families. How about we go back to conservative policies that in 2014 had Canadians as the richest middle class in the world. What did you expect to happen importing no skilled immigrants would do to the economy and wages? Giving them free dental and 10 dollars a day daycare off of our backs were terrible policies.
Low Immigration? Liberals have allowed millions into Canada past ten years. And that does not include the asylum seekers….OMG… what now? More immigrants?
Low immigration???!!! More than enough! Especially those who don’t come here to work and contribute but to leech and collect generous Canadian welfare.
We already send/give away way to much in aid to foreign countries for no reason whatsoever while we here struggle to meet ends.
The biggest economy has the big population market. Look at China now they embraces capitalism. Why did the west setup shop in China in the 90s and why can’t Donny tell China what to do. Big population. Immigrants siblings from years back are the driving force of today’s economy. MAGA with its anti-immigration has long term effect. US is spiraling down and Canada will follow if we follow its anti-immigration policy.