Canada's population will grow by 5.2 percent in 2021, thanks to immigration.

According to official figures released on Wednesday, Canada's population increased by 5.2 percent from 2016 to 37 million people in 2021, owing primarily to immigration, with the biggest growth occurring in the downtowns and remote suburbs of large cities.

According to Statistics Canada's Census 2021 publication, Canada added 1.8 million people between 2016 and 2021, with over 80 percent of those new inhabitants coming from outside the nation, maintaining its position as the fastest-growing G7 country.

Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Japan make up the Group of Seven nations.

According to Statscan, nearly 90% of new immigrants settled in metropolitan areas, bringing the proportion of Canadians residing in large cities to 73.7 percent, up from 73.2 percent five years ago.

"Canada continues to urbanize, with large urban centers benefiting the most from newcomers," according to Statscan. "Rapid urbanization is increasing the demand for infrastructure, transportation, and a wide range of services, including front-line emergency services."

Urban downtowns grew at the greatest rate over the last five years, rising 10.9 percent from 2016, yet urban sprawl also increased, with the farthest suburbs of large cities growing 8.8 percent in that time.

The Covid-19 epidemic, on the other hand, curbed the rapid growth of Canada's downtowns, with Toronto's core rising only 0.4 percent from 2020 to 2021, compared to 3.2 percent yearly from 2016 to 2019. In the years 2020 and 2021, both downtown Montreal and Vancouver lost residents.