Population Institute Canada

“All our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people." — Naturalist, Broadcaster and Honorary PIC Patron Sir David Attenborough populationinstitutecanada.ca/about-us/our-p…

A program to study whether keeping girls in school reduced child marriage was conducted in Nigeria between 2018 and 2020. The subjects were 1,181 adolescent girls from various communities who were both unmarried and out of school. One group was offered accelerated learning to enable their return to school and whose parents were helped with costs of education. The other group received vocational training to work in local shops. In the final survey, 79% of the girls in the education program remained unmarried compared to 14% in the non-participating group, an approximately 80% decrease in the likelihood of marriage during the study period. humanprogress.org/child-marriage…

For the first time in its history as a country, Canada’s population decreased last year, according to Statistics Canada. On January 1, 2026, the population of Canada was 41,472,081, down by 0.2% or about 102,000 people from January 1, 2025. The leading factor was a reduction in the number of non-permanent residents, with study permit holders making the greatest contribution to the decrease. Best to think of it as simply a short breather from growth though, as targets for temporary and permanent residents combined remain in the 750,000 range for 2026, 2027, and 2028. cbc.ca/news/politics/…

On March 5, representatives from five EU member countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Greece) met to discuss the creation of deportation centres or “return hubs” outside of Europe following a regulation that was agreed to by EU countries in December. Under one-third of the people who are ordered to leave the EU are effectively returned to their countries of origin. When approved, it will enable governments to deport irregular migrants to third countries as long as they have bilateral agreements in place. euronews.com/my-europe/2026…

Peter Schweitzer testifies before the US Congress about the “eye-popping” amount of birth tourism in the US. Birth tourism refers to going to a country that grants “birthright citizenship” in order to give birth there. The US and Canada, for example, grant citizenship to anyone born in the country, even if the mother is a tourist on a short visit. China, says Schweitzer, has an organized birth tourism industry and there could be one million “US citizens” being raised in the People’s Republic of China. Regardless of what the actual numbers are, birth tourism is a security risk. We know it’s also happening big-time in Canada. And more recently, Canada’s Bill C-3 (An Act to amend the Citizenship ACT (2025)) gives citizenship for unlimited generations to the descendants of anyone who has only spent 1,095 days (3 years) in Canada, and regardless of where the descendants live. Are we just setting ourselves up for foreign nationals to use their “citizenship” to advance their own agenda which could be against our own interests? x.com/Govt_Acct_Inst…

Peter Stubbins asks an excellent question of Lisa Lalande, CEO of the Century Initiative that promotes a Canadian population of 100 million by 2100. (Think housing affordability and vanishing greenspace is a problem now? Just you wait!) In a nutshell, his question is, why should her organization have charitable status? Stubbins won’t get an answer from Lalande, but PIC can give him the answer: “The Century Initiative has charitable status because its objective of massive growth aligns with the interests of the profiteers of growth and they own the media that promotes endless growth.” Even if that growth is devouring a lot of the things that provide quality of life for many Canadians. dominionreview.ca/why-does-the-1…

We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing on March 13 of Dr. Paul Ehrlich, whom we were honoured to have as a patron, along with his wife Anne. Dr. Ehrlich was a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University in California, where he founded the Center for Conservation Biology in 1984. He is probably best known for his 1968 bestseller, The Population Bomb, which warned of a future of famine and environmental problems caused by population growth. Dr. Ehrlich was the author of over 1000 scientific papers and 45 books and the recipient of numerous awards. He also promoted awareness of population and environmental issues in popular forums, making frequent appearances of TV and radio programs. seattletimes.com/nation-world/p…

Sure, you can expect the Conservatives to attack the Liberal government (that’s their job, after all), but the Liberals have given them a lot to work with. They’ve been in power since 2015 and have really done a number on the Canadian housing market. More and more Canadians are becoming permanent renters with no prospect of owning their own home. As corporations tighten their grip on property ownership, essentially becoming “landowners,” will more and more Canadians become “serfs”? conservative.ca/just-the-facts…

Lake Mead, the reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River bordering Nevada and Arizona, recently approached its dead pool level, meaning there would be no moving water or power. It turns out the Colorado River Compact (a 1922 agreement allocating a total of 15 million acre-feet of water annually to 7 states) was based on unusually wet years and overestimated the river’s average flow. No corrections were made. Now a long-term drought has caused water storage levels in Lake Mead and also upstream Lake Powell to drop drastically, forcing states to renegotiate a new agreement with reduced water supplies. Reality trumps water rights – another encounter with the limits that we humans like to pretend don’t exist for us. youtube.com/watch?v=wHBULE…

Perhaps a little-known fact – but developing countries get about three times more money from expats sending remittances than from foreign aid. In some countries remittances are over 20% of the GDP. How sustainable is an arrangement where developing countries depend on exporting some of their people so they can send money back home, money that vanishes from the economy of the host country? Are migration and remittances enabling business as usual – rapid population growth and often corruption – to continue in developing countries? un.org/ht/desa/remitt…

Tanzania plans to resume the live animal trade, suspended in 2016, by selling baboons and monkeys that are destroying crops and impacting food security. This will save the animals (247 baboons have been killed since the live trade ended), solve the problem and generate revenue, says Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism Dr. Ashatu Kijaji. Of course, slowing population growth would also do a lot to reduce human-animal conflicts. Tanzania’s population, now nearing 72 million, has increased 7-fold in 65 years. In 1961, it was 10 million. It is still growing at nearly 3% annually, with a total fertility rate of 4.5 children per woman. europesays.com/africa/93550/

Looks like birdwatching could rewire your brain. A recent study found structural differences in the brains of expert birdwatchers compared to novices. MRI imaging showed that the brains of experts had greater cellular density in areas involved in working memory, spatial awareness, and object recognition than those of novices. When looking at birds, these areas were also more active in the expert group. We know from previous studies that living near nature increases well-being. Growth destroys nature and bird habitat yet remains our holy grail. Are we stupid? youtube.com/shorts/sY4CMH8…

A recently published study on bird population in North America finds that about half of the 261 species analyzed showed significant declines between 1987 and 2021, and a quarter showed accelerating declines. Hotspots of decline were located in regions of high-intensity agriculture (high cropland area, fertilizer use, or pesticide use). What? Can all the talk about “decoupling” human activities from an environmental impact be bunk? science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

In 2025, for the tenth consecutive year, the number of births in Japan fell to a record low, declining by 2.1% from the previous year. Over the past decade, births have fallen by about 30%. The natural decrease in population (difference between births and deaths) widened to a record 899,845. And although Japan’s government sees this as a problem, the country is doing better than most. japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/02/2…

India’s high commissioner to Canada said Canada should have 100 million people and that India could get it there by sending 60 million Indians to Canada. As far as we know, there was no official statement from Canada giving that suggestion the slap down it deserves. Prime Minister Mark Carney, visiting India, enthused about Canada’s large Indian population, saying 2 million Canadians can trace their roots to India and 400,000 study in Canada, while announcing a new Canada-India talent and innovation strategy. Is Carney warning us that Canada plans to reopen the floodgates of mass immigration? dailydive.ca/news/canada/in…

Nova Scotia teachers say school violence has hit a crisis point as 27,000 incidents of physical violence were reported in the province’s schools in the last school year. This is a trend across the country and driving teachers to leave the profession. A Canadian Teachers’ Federation Survey found that 100% of elementary school teachers were significantly concerned about violence at school. Maybe, like healthcare and many social services, schools are overwhelmed by numbers. And what exactly are the legislation and policies, mentioned by one researcher, that have “culminated in violence becoming a symptom of a school system that’s not functioning properly?” Maybe it’s time to return authority to teachers and refocus education on the ‘three Rs.’ youtube.com/watch?v=TkLgbh…

If the economics of building new homes in Canada are “simply broken,” it’s the government that broke them. Prices are “too high to buy and not high enough to build,” say CIBC economists. With the tap on Canada’s population growth turned down, the average home price has fallen, but the cost of building new homes has risen. And there is an oversupply of small condos in Toronto and Vancouver because it seems no one wants to live in a shoebox. ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/simply-br…

Canada is expecting zero population growth in 2026, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, as the federal immigration plan is to cut temporary work and student visas from 674,000 in 2025 to 385,000 in 2026. The plan also sets a target of 380,000 permanent residents annually for 2026 to 2028, with two one-time programs to fast-track permanent residency for 148,000 non-permanent residents for the next two years. In other words, many of our new permanent residents for 2026 and 2027 are already here as non-permanent residents. So the good news is that the population will stabilize for 2026. But then it will grow by 0.3% in 2027 and at 0.8% annually thereafter. However, if the government really believe in protecting Canada’s environment and conserving its farmland, its goal would be population stabilization and eventual contraction. Japan is doing it successfully. We could too, if we could abandon the forever-growth mindset. cbc.ca/news/politics/…

Funny? Not so funny? Is this actually the way the Canadian Dream is panning out for a lot of people? Maybe a bit exaggerated (especially the last bit), but the term “screwed generation” didn’t come from nowhere. And unfortunately it could apply to beyond the millennials. All post-boomers face high student debt, stagnant wages, high housing costs, and difficult job markets. youtube.com/shorts/qpjmbrt…

If you have an hour, you can subject yourself to 50 examples of “Urban Hell on Earth” from around the world. Some are definitely more hellish than others, some are just plain weird, some even impress with their engineering ingenuity. Not a single one of them will make you think that Earth is short of people though. youtube.com/watch?v=hpe_00…

A reporter seems to be trying for a “gotcha” on Alberta Premier Danielle Smith by quoting a tweet from one of her staffers about “reckless, unsustainable mass immigration into Canada” orchestrated by those who “flood our borders with millions from societies not built on the same foundations that have made us thrive.” But Smith is not perturbed and affirms that Western society is based on a Socratic Judeo-Christian tradition which was indeed a foundational influence, that people were able to secure good-paying jobs and enter a system with the social supports they needed. And that system broke, she says, when six million people came into Canada in the post-Covid era. That last number is a bit off (it was really “only” 3.5 million) but the gist of the message is correct. The recent years of mass immigration have devastated Canada economically (our per capita GDP is now comparable to that of the poorest US states). Which explains why immigration was the number one issue that the Alberta Next panel heard about. youtube.com/shorts/KV4ZXQE…