Economics
Immigration Could Help Canada Top U.S. in Economic Growth This Year
- Growing population drives Canadian expansion; not so in U.S.
- America generating better productivity gains than its neighbor
Pedestrians walk through John Street Park in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Economists expect Canada and the U.S. to compete for the top spot for growth among the Group of Seven countries in 2020, yet the latest population data reveal the two nations have starkly different forces driving their expansions.
The Census Bureau reported Dec. 30 that net international migration in the U.S. plummeted for a third straight year in 2019 to a decade low of 595,000. Along with declining birthrates, that helped slow annual population growth to the weakest in a century, according to an analysis by Brookings Institution demographer William Frey.