This just in. Canada's population is now above 34 million — 34,019,000, to be exact (though by the time you read this it may be 34,019,100.

This latest Statistics Canada estimate was as of April 1. It represents an increase of 88,100 since the beginning of the year, a rise of 0.26 per cent.

What does this mean, in terms of our place in the world? We now rank 36th in terms of population, just ahead of Uganda, just behind Algeria (of the 223 countries listed in the Wikipedia entry on world population, the smallest is the Pitcairn Islands. The biggest, is of course, China). Though you shouldn't use stats like these to draw ersatz parallels, we feel it not inappropriate to point out that while our population ranking is 36th, our world soccer ranking (FIFA Men's) is 63rd. Just reverse the digits. We are also the second biggest country in the world, area-wise. Canada — go figure.

More than two-thirds of this recent population increase was due to international migration, while 29 per cent was attributable to natural growth — i.e., the birth rate.

The largest increases were in the four western provinces. B.C. and Saskatchewan led the way with increases of 0.37 and 0.36 per cent respectively.

Remember that great Bobby Gimby song, back in '67, celebrating 100 years of Confederation? “CA-NA-DA (one little two little three Canadians); We love thee (now we are 20 million)…” It seems we will likely double that joyful 20 million of song by the time we celebrate our 150th anniversary. As the same song says, “merrily we roll along, together all the way.”