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HALIFAX — Atlantic Canada’s population boom has ended, with each of the four provinces losing residents at the end of 2025, and economic experts say that’s going to make it harder for provincial governments awash in red ink to balance the books.
“You don’t grow an economy by losing population … so this is not a good sign,” Donald Savoie, Université de Moncton’s well-known public administration and economic development scholar, said in an interview Thursday.
Savoie says the Atlantic region has a long history of population decline, especially between the 1950s and 1970s, with workers leaving the region to seek more lucrative opportunities in other parts of the country. That began to change in the COVID-19 era with the rise of remote work and relatively cheap property prices attracting unprecedented levels of immigrants and residents from other parts of Canada.
Statistics Canada says Nova Scotia has added more than 100,000 people since 2020, becoming the first Atlantic province with more than a million people. New Brunswick has added about 87,000 over that period, while Prince Edward Island has grown by 26,000 and Newfoundland and Labrador has seen 22,000 new residents.
StatCan says the trend ended in the fourth quarter of 2025 with New Brunswick losing 1,000 people compared to the previous three months, the first decline since the beginning of 2017. Nova Scotia was down 1,400 in the same quarter, its first population loss since 2020.
Newfoundland and Labrador was down 200 people, the first drop since 2021. P.E.I.’s population fell in two quarters in 2025, including the fourth when it lost about 150 people compared to the three months prior.
Overall, each of the four provinces still saw net population growth for the year.
Savoie says there’s no doubt the growing numbers have strained public institutions like schools and hospitals with politicians hearing from constituents frustrated with the resulting impacts on services and sky-high housing prices. As a result, the federal government has significantly scaled back the number of immigrants and international students entering the country.
Savoie says there may be merit to pausing the demand on facilities and services, but the provinces can’t afford to pause economic growth. He said one bright spot is the development of an entrepreneurial class in Atlantic Canada.
“That growth — it’s going to be difficult to put a stop sign to it,” he said.
“The entrepreneurial class that I see growing in my region, it’s heartwarming, and it’s something that I have never seen before, and I’m of a certain vintage.”
Lana Asaff, a senior economist with the Atlantic Economic Council, says it’s not just immigration declines impacting the region, but also less interprovincial migration and a falling birthrate. The impacts were clear in New Brunswick’s fiscal update this week, when Premier Susan Holt’s government revealed a record deficit of $1.3 billion.
“We have lower tax revenues, for example, in income tax, HST, corporate tax, and all three of those are down in the New Brunswick fiscal update,” Asaff said in an interview. “And then at the same time, our population is aging. So that means higher expenses for health care as older adults use more health services.”
Much of the region is trying to grow the economy with resource projects. New Brunswick’s Sisso tungsten mine is being considered for fast-track approval by the federal government; Newfoundland and Labrador is always looking to expand its offshore oil and gas development; and Nova Scotia is trying to ramp up mining, onshore and offshore gas, wind and hydrogen. All of those projects will require workers.
“If we create opportunities, people will come,” said Savoie. “We have an abundance of natural resources in our region .… As Maritimers I think we need to decide if we exploit natural resources or we close down schools. That’s where we’re at.
“There’s all kinds of opportunities in the Maritime provinces, and we’re going to have to grab them.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2026.
Devin Stevens, The Canadian Press
