New Brunswickers moving back

Throughout Canada’s history, migration flows have contributed to shaping and reshaping the country’s language geography.

For example, internal migration has shaped the minority official language communities in Canada—i.e., English-speaking populations in Quebec and French-speaking populations in the other provinces.

Using data from the Census of Population, a new study released by Statistics Canada sheds light on the key trends in interprovincial migration in Canada, particularly the migration of minority language populations.

Approximately 810,000 English speakers (first official language spoken) and 80,000 French speakers moved to a different province or territory in Canada during the period between the 2016 and 2021 censuses.

For both English and French speakers across all provinces, employment and family were the main reasons reported for moving to a different province, regardless of the province or territory of origin or destination. For example, from 2016 to 2021, more people left other provinces to move to New Brunswick than vice versa. This is a reversal in trend for the province, where net interprovincial migration has been negative for most of the recent intercensal periods, for both French speakers and the rest of the population.

In fact, from 2016 to 2021, the number of French speakers who left New Brunswick to settle in another province (6,300 people) was at its lowest level in over 40 years. People born in New Brunswick who moved back to the province contributed to its highest interprovincial in-migration flow (7,800 people) since the 1981-to-1986 intercensal period.

To find out more about interprovincial and interregional migration among French- and English-speaking populations across the country, read the full article: Interprovincial and interregional migration of Canada’s French- and English-speaking populations.