Greater Montreal now has over four million residents, according to new Statistics Canada numbers released Wednesday.

The newest data pegs the population of the Montreal metropolitan area at 4,027,100 people as of July 1, 2014.

The figure is the estimated number of people living in the 90 municipalities that make up the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Montreal.

Meanwhile Greater Toronto has reached 6,055,700 residents as of July 1.

The metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have seen their populations grow faster than major centers in the United States.

Areas outside of the major Canadian cities did not see nearly as robust growth, with an average 0.4 percent growth between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2014.

Immigration has fueled the growth, accounting for one percent of the 1.4 percent growth seen in the big cities during that time. Migration from the regions only accounts for 0.2 percent of the 1.4 percent growth.

Greater Toronto attracted 31 percent of newcomers between 2013 and 2014 for a total of 79 500 residents.

Newcomers are increasingly moving to the Prairies, as 22 percent of new Canadians have moved to that part of the country, versus just nine percent a decade ago, as the area has benefited from inter-provincial migration.

City dwellers are younger than those in the regions, the study notes.

Trois-Rivières is the metropolitan area with the highest median age in the country (45.8 years) and having the highest proportion of people aged 65 and over (20.9 percent) .

Conversely, Saskatoon displays the lowest median age (34.5 years), while Calgary had the lowest proportion of people aged 65 and over (10.1 percent).