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Demographic Trends in Canada, 1941–56, and Some of Their Implications*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

A. H. LeNeveu  and
Y. Kasahara
A. H. LeNeveu
Affiliation:
Ottawa
Y. Kasahara
Affiliation:
Ottawa
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Extract

While more than half of the world's population is still confronted by the “Malthusian menace” of poverty, hunger, and disease, Canadians have been able to enjoy a steadily rising level of well-being. The phenomenal expansion of the Canadian economy has not only facilitated improvements in the general standard of living, but has also given impetus to significant demographic changes in this country.

Contrary to the “predictions” made by some demographers, the pre-war downward trend in fertility was reversed in the early years of the Second World War, and a “baby boom” set in, in Canada as elsewhere. Even after the boom had subsided in most other countries and their birth rates had shown a sign of swinging back to the pre-war level, Canada's growth in population continued to gather momentum. Sustained high fertility, steadily declining mortality, and resumption of immigration on a substantial scale following the war have resulted in an impressive enlargement of Canada's human resources. Shifts in vital trends and in immigration in recent years have also modified the structure of the Canadian population. Furthermore, advances in industrial technology and consequent alterations in the utilization of manpower have stimulated a large-scale geographical and occupational redistribution of the population. The trend toward a decrease in population in the farm areas, a heavy influx of migrants into metropolitan centres, and the suburban development of some of the oldest cities of the country are but manifestations of demographic response to social and economic changes occurring in present-day Canada.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , February 1958 , pp. 9 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1958

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Footnotes

*

This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in Ottawa, June 13, 1957.

References

1 Approximately 10 per cent of this increase is due to the addition of the population of Newfoundland which at the 1956 census amounted to 415,074. Excluding Newfoundland, the rate of increase in Canada between 1941 and 1956 was 36 per cent In the following comparison of the trends over the fifteen years, Newfoundland is excluded from consideration.

2 Quebec did not come into the national vital registration system until 1926.

3 No information is available from the 1956 census on the number of immigrants of the 1951–6 period resident in a given province at the census date.

4 It is of interest to note that Ontario, which offers women superior opportunities for employment, showed only a slight excess of men over women in its net migration in the most mobile age group, 20–34.

5 Since the 1951 census, the urban population has been defined as the population residing in incorporated and unincorporated areas of 1,000 population and over, as well as in all parts of census metropolitan areas.

6 For a country that is a large exporter of farm products it is of some significance that United Nations projections indicate an increase of 937 million in world population between 1955 and 1980.

7 No data are available from the 1956 census on post-war immigrants. On the basis of 1951 census data and current statistics on immigration, it is estimated that in 1956, about 10 per cent of the total number of those aged 15 to 24 were post-war immigrants.