HALIFAX – A new study says while Atlantic Canada’s largest city is growing, population rates in Halifax remain marginal because more people are moving elsewhere.
The Greater Halifax Partnership says the city’s population grew by four tens of one per cent in 2013, a rate slower than most Canadian cities and half the normal rate of growth.
Chief economist Fred Morley says keeping population growth rates high through retaining immigrants and new university graduates is key to supporting business and to growing the tax base.
The study says since 2001, migration has accounted for two thirds of Halifax’s population growth.
It says the weak population growth in 2013 was due to declining immigration and a large spike in residents moving west to other provinces.
The study, known as the Halifax Index, says key economic opportunities lie in such things as increasing density in the city’s centre, retaining regional and head business offices and in making Halifax a major centre for big data research and business.
BELOW: Read the full Halifax Index 2014 report
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