Yukon population rises to within touching distance of NWT

The Yukon is on course to soon become the largest of Canada’s territories by population.

Figures released by Statistics Canada on Thursday show the Yukon’s population rose by around two percent, from 43,518 to 44,412, between April 2022 and April 2023.

The Northwest Territories’ population, by contrast, dropped slightly from 45,698 to 45,668.

For the second quarter in a row, the NWT was the only Canadian jurisdiction to record a year-on-year drop in population. Nationwide, the population rose by 3.1 percent in the 12 months to April 2023.

Twenty years ago, the Yukon’s population was barely two-thirds that of the NWT, but the story since has been of consistent growth in the Yukon compared to an almost flatlining number of NWT residents.

Nunavut, which had fewer than 30,000 residents two decades ago, reached 40,000 for the first time last year and posted continued growth in the latest figures, though at a slower rate than Yukon.

The Yukon’s population is benefiting from large numbers of international migrants and very little population loss to Canada’s southern provinces, whereas the NWT has for years struggled to combat a steady stream of people moving south – a phenomenon likely to continue as the territory’s diamond mines gradually wind down operations.

Nunavut’s population growth is being sustained largely by natural increase, meaning more local births than deaths.