OTTAWA – Alberta claimed the title as Canada’s fastest growing province on Wednesday as Statistics Canada released the first look at the 2011 census results.
Wild Rose Country posted a growth rate of 10.8 per cent since 2006, an increase that pushed its total population up to 3.6 million people from 3.3 million.
The only place where growth was faster was in the Yukon was the growth rate hit 11.7 per cent over the past five years.
The data comes as StatCan unveiled updated numbers of Canada’s population on Wednesday.
The numbers show Canadian population across all provinces and territories now reaches 33.5 million people, an increase of 5.9 per cent. The pace of population growth exceeds all of Canada’s G8 peers and has pushed Canada’s population to double since 1961.
A trifecta of factors is the most likely contributors to growth in the Western provinces including Alberta, according to StatCan: interprovincial migration, higher birth rates and a larger influx of immigrants.
The province can also lay claim to Canada’s fastest growing major cities, also called census metropolitan areas.
Calgary grew to 1.2 million residents at a rate of 12.6 per cent, while Edmonton raced behind to 1.15 million at a rate of 12.1 per cent. Both were far above the national average of 5.9 per cent.
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Ten of the 15 fastest growing mid-sized cities, called census agglomerations, were also located in Alberta.
All but one, Collingwood, Ont., were located in Western provinces – a trend that reflects the changing patterns of population distributions across the country.
For the first time, the population share of Western Canada at 30.7 per cent exceeds that of Atlantic Canada and Quebec at 30.6 per cent. Ontario still has the highest share of population at 38.4 per cent.
Wednesday’s data release was the first in a series of numbers gleaned from the 2011 census that will be released over the next year.
Subsequent 2012 releases will provide more detail about the characteristics of Canada population such as age, sex, family make-up, marital status, types of dwelling and language.
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