According to Statistics Canada (Statscan), Alberta's population increased by five times the national average in the fourth quarter of 2005. The Prairie province has not seen growth of this magnitude since it struck oil in the late 1970s.

Canada's population experienced its biggest fourth-quarter increase since 2001 welcoming 55,400, new immigrants between October and December of 2005. “The gain was due mainly to an increase in the number of immigrants arriving in Canada,” Statscan noted. Nationally our population has reached 32,422,900. Federal immigration grew in nearly every region of the country.