Voyageur 117
Canada's Population Shrank for the First Time Since Confederation, and Almost Every Big Canadian University Slipped in the World Rankings.
News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Canada's Population Shrank for the First Time Since Confederation
Canada got a little smaller last year as the population fell for the first time since Confederation. January 1 greeted about 102,000 fewer people than were in-country a year earlier, a drop of 0.2 percent.
Most of that is by design since PM Mark Carney's government has cut the target for temporary residents to 385,000 this year (that’s down more than 40 percent from the peak), and capped new permanent residents at 380,000. The same squeeze that tipped the economy into a technical recession (Voyageur 116) is now reshaping the population itself.
The part that compounds (we love compounding) is that about 25,500 Canadians retire every month. That’s about twice the rate of twenty years ago, and the youngest boomers won’t turn 65 until 2029. With fewer newcomers to backfill them, RBC says the working-age population is going to shrink for the first time on record apart from during the pandemic.
Read more: RBC Economics / CBC News
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A photo from the old country:
Big Canadian Universities Slipping in World Rankings
Almost every big Canadian university slid down the world rankings this year. The Center for World University Rankings issued its 2026 list on Monday, and McGill, UBC and the University of Alberta each fell a single place, to 28th, 49th and 82nd. Only the University of Toronto was able to hold its ground, taking 23rd for the fourth year running.
The moves are tiny, obviously, and the people who compile these tables say they deserve a grain of salt. CWUR ranks 2,000 schools out of more than 21,000 that they evaluate, and weigh “research” at 40 percent, “education” and “employability” at a quarter each, and “faculty” for the rest.
The dip is small, but it is maybe a little disconcerting since it’s similar to the way Canada slid in the global Best Countries ranking a couple of weeks back (Voyageur 107).
For a Canadian raising kids abroad, the ranking is a rough proxy for one practical question, which is whether a degree from back home still carries weight in a job market far from campus.