The GTA is just short of 7 million, and accelerating with the Liberal's increased immigration policies. The Toronto CMA isn't really an accurate representation of the GTA since it skips out on Burlington, Whitby, Oshawa, etc. The GTA was at 6.4 million in 2016, and has been growing at around 130,000 people a year, so I imagine its around 6.9 million today.
(The following is a longer post, but it does get to the point in the end)
To further amplify insertnamehere's post, there are multiple levels of aggregation, which servers to muddy the waters a bit when it comes to population figures. The narrowest level would be the City of Toronto, followed by the Toronto CMA, then the GTA or Greater Toronto Area, and finally the GTHA or Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
Toronto population - the population within the actual boundaries of the City, and is officially determined only periodically, as part of the periodic Statistics Canada census - to be done next in 2021. Informal updates, based on sampled growth rates, are published periodically by various sources, but are generally only approximations of the actual population of the City - currently estimated to be just under 3 million people
Toronto CMA population - the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area broadly overlaps with the GTA, however it does not include a number of areas which would generally be considered as part of the GTA - excluding Whitby, Oshawa, Burlington, while on the other hand, the CMA includes some areas which are not generally considered to be part of the GTA. The complete list of areas which constitute the Toronto CMA can be found here:
www12.statcan.gc.ca
The interesting thing is that while most population estimates are derived from the Statistics Canada periodic census data, with estimated growth rate adjustments applied to bring the data more up to date, population figures for the Toronto CMA are updated by Statistics Canada every month, as part of the regular Labour Force Survey. The data is prepared on a sampling basis, not a complete census, so it is not 100% precise, but as it is being done monthly, individual instances of sampling errors - the outliers - are fairly obvious and can be discounted.
According to the most recent data, the Toronto CMA population, as of November 2019, was 5,620,000, with a year over year increase from November 2018, of 145,500, or a percentage year over year growth rate of 2.7%.
A summary of the month by month data (in thousands) for Toronto, since Statistics Canada started providing the detailed break-outs for the Toronto (as well as the Montreal and Vancouver) CMAs is as follows:
| Labour Force | Employment | Unemployment | Unemployment Rate | Toronto CMA Population | CMA Population Prior Year (Y/Y) | Population Change | Change % |
Nov 2019 | 3,752.9 | 3,534.7 | 218.2 | 5.8% | 5,620.0 | 5,474.5 | 145.5 | 2.7% |
Oct 2019 | 3,718.6 | 3,509.3 | 209.4 | 5.6% | 5,609.5 | 5,464.2 | 145.3 | 2.7% |
Sept 2019 | 3,755.2 | 3,547.9 | 207.3 | 5.5% | 5,597.7 | 5,453.4 | 144.3 | 2.6% |
Aug 2019 | 3,735.6 | 3,513.9 | 221.7 | 5.9% | 5,583.2 | 5,443.4 | 139.8 | 2.6% |
July 2019 | 3,729.0 | 3,506.2 | 222.7 | 6.0% | 5,571.3 | 5,432.4 | 138.9 | 2.6% |
June 2019 | 3,679.5 | 3,465.5 | 210.4 | 5.7% | 5,555.6 | 5,418.2 | 137.4 | 2.5% |
May 2019 | 3,674.1 | 3,476.3 | 197.8 | 5.4% | 5,543.3 | 5,407.1 | 136.2 | 2.5% |
Apr 2019 | 3,701.4 | 3,456.4 | 245.0 | 6.6% | 5,532.2 | 5,396.3 | 135.9 | 2.5% |
Mar 2019 | 3,685.7 | 3,436.5 | 249.2 | 6.8% | 5,518.4 | 5,383.3 | 135.1 | 2.5% |
Feb 2019 | 3,675.6 | 3,434.7 | 240.9 | 6.6% | 5,508.4 | 5,372.6 | 135.8 | 2.5% |
Jan 2019 | 3,639.5 | 3,405.3 | 234.2 | 6.4% | 5,499.1 | 5,363.1 | 136.0 | 2.5% |
Dec 2018 | 3,592.5 | 3,385.4 | 207.1 | 5.8% | 5,484.9 | 5,349.5 | 135.4 | 2.5% |
Nov 2018 | 3,604.0 | 3,383.7 | 220.4 | 6.1% | 5,474.5 | 5,340.3 | 134.2 | 2.5% |
Oct 2018 | 3,589.2 | 3,364.7 | 224.5 | 6.3% | 5,464.2 | 5,331.0 | 133.2 | 2.5% |
Sept 2018 | 3,558.3 | 3,332.2 | 226.1 | 6.4% | 5,453.4 | 5,321.5 | 131.9 | 2.5% |
Aug 2018 | 3,530.4 | 3,309.2 | 221.2 | 6.3% | 5,443.4 | 5,312.1 | 131.3 | 2.5% |
July 2018 | 3,586.1 | 3,387.3 | 198.8 | 5.5% | 5,432.4 | 5,300.4 | 132.0 | 2.5% |
June 2018 | 3,582.4 | 3,354.5 | 228.0 | 6.4% | 5,418.2 | 5,290.7 | 127.5 | 2.4% |
May 2018 | 3,564.0 | 3,340.8 | 223.3 | 6.3% | 5,407.1 | 5,281.4 | 125.7 | 2.4% |
April 2018 | 3,547.0 | 3,325.7 | 221.3 | 6.2% | 5,396.3 | | | |
Unfortunately, comparable data for the Hamilton CMA is not currently being provided by Statistics Canada.