Population growth in Waterloo Region fuelled by immigration: Report

With the population of the Region of Waterloo expected to surpass 1 million people by 2050, making informed decisions surrounding planning and service development becomes critical.

One of the tools available to decision makers is the 2024 Immigration Profile, which uses data collected from the 2021 Census and other sources to detail immigration trends in the region.

“The Immigration Profile brings together important data to help inform our planning as we respond to the significant growth Waterloo Region is undergoing now and prepare for anticipated growth in the future,” Regional Chair Karen Redman said in a press release.

The region and the Waterloo Region Immigration Partnership released the profile this week that showcased a growing trend of people calling the area home.

One of the key findings was that immigration in Waterloo Region makes up 25.4 per cent of the population. The data shows 27,835 people settled in the region after arriving in Canada between 2016 and 2021.

Of those new arrivals, the majority belong to racialized groups, primarily South Asian, Black and Arab. The most common first languages among new immigrants are English, Arabic and Punjabi.

There has also been a significant increase in the number of temporary work and study permits. They’ve nearly doubled from 17,630 in 2018 to 36,840 in 2022. Unsurprisingly, the majority of those are student visas.

The profile unfortunately also details the challenges facing new arrivals.

Recent immigrants are more likely to face high unemployment rates and lower median employment incomes when compared to established immigrants or Canadian-born individuals. That in-turn leads to 17 per cent of recent immigrants living below the Market Basket Measure, the official measure of poverty in Canada.