Manitoba's population grew in 2022: StatsCan

The Winnipeg skyline is pictured in September 2022. (CTV News Winnipeg Photo)

Manitoba’s population growth reached – if not exceeded – record levels in 2022.

Between January 2022 and January 2023, Manitoba’s population increased by 33,489, a rate of 2.36 per cent, according to data released by Statistics Canada.

That is well above the annual growth seen in 2016, when Manitoba increased by 22,147 people or 1.71 per cent, what the province called the largest annual growth in Manitoba’s population on record.

On average, since 2010, Manitoba’s population increased by a little over one per cent annually, save for 2016 and 2017, when population growth was at 1.71 per cent and 1.52 per cent, respectively.

The province’s noticeable uptick in population throughout 2022 is largely thanks to international immigration. Manitoba welcomed 40,593 net immigrants last year, according to federal data. Over the last five years, in comparison, Manitoba averaged 13,421 international migrants annually.

Manitoba also saw a natural increase – the number of total births subtracted from the number of total deaths - of 3,028 in 2022.

Those gains in the province’s population were offset by interprovincial migration, with 10,132 people leaving Manitoba’s borders. The destinations for most Manitobans leaving the province, according to records up to 2021/2022, are Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.