Saskatchewan’s population is continuing to grow faster than most other Canadian provinces.
The province’s population, as of Oct. 1, 2013, was just over 1,114,000 people — nearly 20,000 more since last October and about 5,800 more since July 1.
The growth rate, both since last year and through the 2013 third quarter, was the second-highest among all Canadian provinces, behind only Alberta.
“We are now in our seventh year of strong population growth — the most sustained period of growth in Saskatchewan in quite some time,” Premier Brad Wall said in a media release Wednesday.
International migration was the largest contributor to Saskatchewan’s increasing population over the last three months, as 3,510 people moved to the province from outside Canada.
The natural increase — the number of births minus the number of deaths — in the province was 1,720.
Saskatchewan and Alberta were the only two provinces to see an increase in the number of people moving to the provinces from within Canada.
Saskatchewan’s interprovincial migration numbers increased by 637 people over the last three months, with most new residents coming from British Columbia and New Brunswick
Wall said he hopes to see the population reach 1.2 million by 2020.
