Between 2001 and 2006, Canada’s population increased 5.4%, according to data from the 2006 Census released by Statistics Canada.

That’s he first time since 1991 that the census-to-census growth rate has accelerated. This acceleration during the past five years was due to higher levels of immigration.

Canada had a faster rate of growth than any other member of the G8 group of industrialized nations between 2001 and 2006. The United States was in second place with a population growth of 5.0% during the same period.

Net international migration fueled two-thirds of Canada’s population growth. In contrast, 60% of the growth in the United States population was due to natural increase, that is, the number of births exceeding the number of deaths. The American fertility rate was among the highest for a developed country.

In total, the 2006 Census enumerated 31,612,897 people in Canada, compared with 30,007,094 in 2001, a gain of just over 1.6 million individuals since the last census.

Only two provinces, Ontario and Alberta, and the three territories recorded growth rates above the national average of 5.4% between 2001 and 2006.

By far, Alberta had the highest rate of growth, 10.6%, surpassing even its rate of growth of 10.3% during the previous five-year period. Net migration from other parts of the country accounted for the majority of the growth in Alberta between 2001 and 2006.

The 6.6% gain in Ontario was the result of a high level of immigration between 2001 and 2006. Half of all Canada’s population growth occurred in Ontario.

Two provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan, experienced population declines. However, the 1.5% decline in Newfoundland and Labrador was slower than the 7.0% drop between 1996 and 2001.

The 1.1% drop in Saskatchewan was identical to the decline during the previous census.

The Atlantic region as a whole did not share in Canada’s population growth. The 2006 Census counted 2,284,779 people in the four provinces combined, virtually unchanged from 2001. Populations edged up in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, but remained virtually the same in New Brunswick.

Quebec’s population rose 4.3%, three times faster than in the previous five-year period (+1.4%). It was the second fastest growth rate since the end of the baby boom in the mid-1960s, and was due to an increase in net international immigration, as well as to smaller net losses in migration exchanges with other provinces.

Manitoba’s population growth of 2.6%, its fastest since 1981, was due largely to net international migration.

British Columbia’s population surpassed the four-million mark between 2001 and 2006. Its rate of growth of 5.3% was almost identical to the national average.

The population of the three territories combined surpassed 100,000 for the first time, up from 93,000 five years earlier. With a population of 41,464, the Northwest Territories is the most populous of the three. The two others were close behind — the Yukon with 30,372 and Nunavut with 29,474.