Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest rate of outmigration in Atlantic Canada.
That’s according to Alex Whalen, a policy analyst with the Fraser Institute and co-author of Voting with their Feet: Migration in Atlantic Canada.
He says over the last 20 years the province has lost nearly 20,000 people, and that one of the main factors in that is the economy.
That number is on par with the other Atlantic provinces, but the difference for this province is the overall size of the population. Because Newfoundland has a smaller population, the outmigration rates end up being much higher.
Whalen calls the population decline a “massive threat.” He says places that shrink their populations end up seeing a lot of economic damage.