that began in the early-mid 19th century dubbed the Great Migration of Canada − this continued through the early 20th century, spurred by record immigration rates during the 1900s and 1910s, when English immigrants formed a majority or plurality of all immigrants to Canada on an annual and decadal basis. The English population, in particular, grew at a rapid pace, increasing from 705,369 persons in 1871 to 2,545,358 persons in 1921, representing an increase of nearly 2 million persons during the fifty-year period. During the same time period, the English proportion of the total Canadian population rose from 20.3% to 29.0%. The English community experienced massive growth principally during the first two decades of the 20th century as a result of record immigration at the time; during the era, persons of English descent also became the single largest ethnic group in Canada, comprising a plurality of the Canadian population by the 1921 census. The Irish population, meanwhile, witnessed steady, slowing population growth during the late 19th and early 20th century, with the proportion of the total Canadian population dropping from 24.3% in 1871 to 12.6% in 1921 and falling from the second-largest ethnic group in Canada from to fourth − principally due to massive immigration flows from England to Canada at the time − despite the population increasing from 846,414 persons to 1,107,803 persons in the fifty-year timeframe. The largest Irish population increases occurred prior to confederation, spurred by mass immigration during the mid-19th century at the height of the Great Migration of Canada, and was primarily due to The Great Famine and related poor economic conditions in Ireland at the time. At the turn of the 20th century, overall immigrant proportions from the British Isles to Canada gradually dropped from a majority to a plurality. At the time, the federal government began supplementing increased mass immigration from the British Isles (mainly England) by also permitting large migration flows from continental Europe, especially Germany, Scandinavia, and the Soviet Union. This was primarily as a result of federal policy aimed at settling the Prairies through ethnic block settlements and ultimately led to the highest annual immigration rates in Canadian history since confederation in 1867 that remain unsurpassed in the contemporary era, including 1913 (new immigrants accounted for 5.3 percent of the total population), 1912 (5.1 percent), 1911 (4.6 percent), 1907 (4.3 percent) and 1910 (4.1 percent). Largely due to increased immigration