Population of Canada by province and territory

However, some provinces such as Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador experienced long periods of stagnation or population decline.

Approximately 900,000 Quebec residents (French Canadian for the great majority) left for the United States between 1840 and 1930.

Indeed, until the middle of the 20th century, Quebec had a birth rate considerably higher than most of its contemporary industrialized societies.

[8] This period of high French-Canadian population growth is nicknamed La Revanche des berceaux (lit: 'the revenge of the cradle').

Newfoundland and Labrador, on the other hand, experienced slow but continuous growth until the 1990s, when the cod fisheries collapsed, and their population started to fall.

After the collapse of the Canadian birth rate, most provinces now sustain their population with immigration from the developing world.

[16] Lord Durham had not recommended this approach and had instead proposed that the representation should be based on the respective populations of the two regions.

This fact fuelled demands in Canada West for the end of sectional equality and the move toward allocating seats in the legislation on the basis of population, nicknamed "rep by pop".

The final formula stipulates that minor changes to the constitution had to be approved by the Parliament of Canada and the Legislature of 6 provinces representing at least 50 percent of the Canadian population.

[20] Quebec had managed to maintain a stable demographic weight within Canada during the first half of the 20th century due to its high birth rate.

However, new immigrants to Canada disproportionally go the Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta, fuelling their rise in demographic weight.

[22] In response, a Canada–Québec Accord was concluded in 1991 which, among other things, guaranteed Quebec an immigration rate proportional to its demographic weight in Canada.

[24] Quebec also attempted to maintain its weight within the Canadian House of Commons during the constitutional negotiations of the early 1990s.