Three provinces and one territory recorded growth rates above the national average of 4.0% between 1996 and 2001. By far, Alberta had the highest rate of growth, 10.3%, more than 2.5 times the national average. Ontario gained 6.1%, while British Columbia rose 4.9%. The population of Nunavut increased 8.1%.

The 2001 Census counted 2,974,807 people in Alberta, which comprised 9.9% of the total population enumerated by the census, compared with 9.3% in 1996. Alberta's booming economy attracted an estimated net inflow of 140,000 migrants from the rest of the country over the 1996-2001 period. This was in direct contrast to the period between 1986 and 1991, when more people left Alberta than moved into it. The positive net growth in Alberta's population was the strongest since the early 1980s at the height of the "oil boom".

The census enumerated 11,410,046 people in Ontario, an increase of more than 656,000 since 1996, the largest growth in absolute numbers among the provinces. This gain represented 57% of the total growth in Canada's population between 1996 and 2001. Ontario accounted for 38% of the nation's population in 2001.

The 6.1% growth in Ontario was due to a high level of immigration, as more than one-half of the immigrants who came to Canada during the past five years settled in Ontario. Unlike Alberta, Ontario's net interprovincial migration, while positive, did not contribute significantly to its population growth.

British Columbia is the only province in which the population has grown at a rate faster than the national average in every census since the province joined Confederation in 1871. The census counted 3,907,738 people in British Columbia, up 4.9% from 1996. While B.C.'s growth rate was higher than the national average, it was less than half the 13.5% increase experienced between 1991 and 1996. In fact, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, British Columbia had the highest growth rate of all provinces.

This slowdown in growth was due mainly to a significant change in the direction of the patterns of interprovincial migration. Between 1996 and 2001, British Columbia incurred a net outflow of migrants to other provinces of about 40,000 people. This compares with a net inflow of 170,000 between 1991 and 1996. However, this outflow of Canadians was more than compensated by the high number of international immigrants who settled in British Columbia.

Among the three territories, the 2001 Census showed an increase in population in only Nunavut, the newest territory that came into existence in April 1999. Nunavut had an estimated 26,745 residents, up 8.1% from the number living within its boundaries at the time of the 1996 Census. Nunavut's growth rate was due mainly to the high birth rate among the Inuit population, and to development in its capital, Iqaluit, the population of which increased by 24.1%. One-half of Nunavut's growth occurred in Iqaluit.

While still outstripping the national average, Nunvaut's growth rate has actually decelerated substantially during the last five years. If the territory had been in existence at the time, the 1996 Census would have shown a population increase of 16.4%. The deceleration in the growth rate recorded in the 2001 Census was due to a decline in natural increase and to net outflows resulting from migration to other territories and provinces.