The population of Saskatchewan continues to grow, but it isn’t growing quite as fast as many people would like to see.  

The quarterly population estimates, released by Statistics Canada on Thursday, showed the population of Saskatchewan increased by 3,039 in the period from January 1st to April 1st.of this year. This was an increase in the population of 0.26 percent, among the slowest in the country. 

The key factor in the slowed population growth was the interprovincial migration – people leaving Saskatchewan for other provinces versus people coming to Saskatchewan from other provinces. In the first three months of the year, 4,321 people opted to move to Saskatchewan from other provinces, while 5,679 moved from Saskatchewan for other provinces. The most popular destinations were Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. 

International immigration was a key driver of the population growth in the first quarter. In all, 4,148 people moved from other countries to Saskatchewan. Combined with the number of people who left Saskatchewan for other countries, it was a net increase in the population of 3,971.  

The natural growth of the population – births and deaths – saw an increase of 642 for the quarter.