Housing completions not keeping pace with population— 2018 to 2022, population growth averaged more than 550,000 per year compared to only 200,000 new homes

Canada’s Growing Housing Gap: Comparing Population Growth and Housing Completions in Canada, 1972–2022

Main Conclusions

• This research bulletin compares annual population growth in Canada with housing completions between 1972 and 2022.
• The growth of the population reached its highest point, nationally and in every province, in 2022.
• Meanwhile, housing completions have stabilized or declined. Nationally, Canada has yet to build more homes annually than it did during the 1970s. This is also the case in 9 out of 10 provinces.
• Throughout most of this period, Canada’s population grew by one to three people for every housing unit completed the previous year.
• In 2022, population grew by 4.7 people for every unit completed the previous year—higher than at any other time.
• Among the provinces, this ratio ranges from 2.8 people per home completed in Quebec to 11.3 people per completion in New Brunswick in 2022.
• Without closing the wide, growing gap between housing demand (population growth) and housing supply (housing completions), Canadians’ current struggles with high housing costs are likely to persist, if not worsen.