Six provinces experienced small changes in their populations from 1996 to 2001: Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Among these provinces, Quebec's population increased 1.4%. Manitoba and Prince Edward Island both showed identical increases of 0.5%. There was virtually no change in Nova Scotia
(-0.1%), while the population of New Brunswick declined by 1.2%, and Saskatchewan by 1.1%.

Most of these provinces tend to have net outflows of migration to other provinces. This is particularly the case with respect to Manitoba and Saskatchewan because of their proximity to Alberta.

Natural increase declined in each of these six provinces between 1996 and 2001. Furthermore, relative to their population, they tend to receive small numbers of immigrants.

Quebec's growth rate decelerated from 3.5% between 1991 and 1996 to 1.4% between 1996 and 2001 because of declines in both its natural increase and the number of immigrants that it received.