Maritime provinces rank low for population growth: U-Haul study

UHaul says the Maritimes are seeing fewer moving trucks coming into the provinces.

A new study from U-Haul found all three Maritime provinces ranked low for population growth in 2025.

The company’s growth index put Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in sixth, eighth and ninth place, respectively, in a ranking of the 10 Canadian provinces. Alberta topped the list for the third year in a year, followed by British Columbia and Manitoba.

“U-Haul ranks provinces and cities by their net gain (or loss) of customers who rented a one-way truck, trailer or U-Box^® moving containers in one province or city proper and dropped off their equipment in another province or city proper,” a news release from the company reads. “The U-Haul Growth Index is compiled from well over 2.5 million annual one-way transactions across Canada and the U.S.”

U-Haul also ranked the top 25 growth cities in Canada, and no Maritime locations made the cut.

“In fact Moncton not that long ago was a top 25 city largely because they were the last place where prices were still fair. Another place was Sydney,” said Devin Mitchell, U-Haul Atlantic Canada President.

Last month Statistics Canada revealed Nova Scotia saw a 0.13 per cent dip in its population, which was the first decline since 2020.

-With files from The Canadian Press