The question of whether Halifax would maintain its pre-pandemic population-growth trajectory was answered with a resounding “yes” in 2022 as the city added 20,713 new residents, an increase of 4.5% over 2021. Halifax’s population as of July 1, 2022, was 480,582. These 2022 results far surpassed the previous record highs for both the growth rate and net persons added set in 2020.

For the fourth year in a row, Halifax was one of the top-five¹fastest-growing CMAs across Canada in 2022. Halifax’s 4.5% growth rate was second only to Moncton, at 5.4%.

International migration rebounded after a slight drop in 2021 with a net addition of 12,381 people, more than double the pre-pandemic high. Interprovincial migration contributed 8,093 new residents to Halifax, 47% above the previous record set in 2021. However, for the first time in nearly 20 years, net intraprovincial migration was negative in Halifax; 124 more people departed Halifax for other parts of Nova Scotia than moved the other way.

Halifax’s allure remained strong in 2022.  Not only did we break records for international and interprovincial migration, but new residents have been trending younger each year. Last year 49.9% of international migrants (6,183) and 58.8% of interprovincial migrants (4,756) were ages 15-29. Furthermore, 26.0% of immigrants (3,224) and 23.9% of interprovincial migrants (1,938) were ages 30-44.

In 2022, for the first time in many years, Halifax saw more residents leave for other parts of Nova Scotia (-124 on net). While Halifax added 962 people in the 15-44 age range, on net it lost people under 15 years and above 44 years (-1,086) to other parts of the province.

Halifax’s population ages 15–44 boomed in 2022. This group grew by 15,415 people, far above the previous record in 2020. Halifax’s population ages 0-14 grew by 1,748 people, also a new record.

This youthful trend has driven Halifax’s median age down by 1.4 years since 2016. Halifax has the fifth-youngest median age across benchmark cities, 4.4 years younger than the oldest, Quebec City, at 43.4 years. Additionally, 69.4% of Halifax’s population is of working age, the second highest across these cities.

Halifax’s record-breaking population growth in 2022 was mirrored by substantial growth in post-secondary student enrolment. Across six of Halifax’s universities,²student enrolment grew by 3.2% (+994) between 2021 and 2022 to 32,526 students. The Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) had 4,195 students enrolled at its Halifax campuses in 2022.

University enrolment grew in 2022 for all three categories of student origin. The largest growth area was students from other Canadian provinces, up 8.2% or 791 students. Enrolment of students from within Nova Scotia grew by 142 students (+1.0%), and international student enrolment increased by 61 (+0.8%).

Country-of-origin data for post-secondary students are available only at the provincial level. India was the number one country for international students in 2022 with 3,356, followed by China with 2,755 at Nova Scotia's 10 universities. These two countries have been the top two source countries for international students over the past five years, together representing an annual average of 57% of international enrolments in Nova Scotia.

Across Halifax’s universities, commerce and administration had the greatest number of graduates in 2021 with 1,644 credentials granted. A close second was sciences and mathematics with 1,635 graduates. In terms of enrolment, these two fields were the most popular. However, sciences and mathematics had 8,088 enrolments compared with commerce and administration’s 5,879. STEM broke its enrolment record for the 13th straight year with 15,781 enrolments across STEM fields. At NSCC, business remained the most popular field for enrolment, but other fields like health and wellness (+124.1%) and engineering technologies (+107.9%) experienced tremendous growth over the previous year.

Tuition costs in Halifax were the highest across benchmark cities. Undergraduate domestic students in Halifax paid $2,752 above the Canadian average and $862 more than in KCW, the second-most expensive benchmark city. Quebec City, with the lowest tuition across benchmark cities, was $6,724 below Halifax.

The Program of Learning Assessment for Nova Scotia (PLANS)³conducts yearly⁴assessments of reading, writing, and mathematics. Student performance has declined since the pandemic. In 2022-23, results ranged from a high of 75% in reading to a low of 57% in writing. The share of grade six students in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education at or above expectation was at or near its lowest level for each subject since these tests began in 2016-17. The decline since the 2019-20 results was most noticeable for mathematics: the share of students at or above expectation fell four percentage points by 2022-23.

Looking at the performance of grade six students of African Nova Scotian (ANS) descent (across the entire province), the story was not very different, with the share of students at or above expectation improving only in reading. For Indigenous students, the share of those at or above expectation worsened for every subject. In fact, the 2022-23 results showed the lowest-ever shares of Indigenous sixth graders at or above expectation in writing and mathematics.

Since 2019-20, gaps in performance between ANS students and the overall Nova Scotia student population narrowed in reading and mathematics, and only slightly widened in writing. The performance gaps widened for Indigenous students across all subjects, however, with gaps in mathematics reaching their widest since testing began in 2016-17.