Halifax’s economic development agency is touting the city’s off-the-charts population growth in 2016, thanks mostly to a surge of international immigrants.
The mini population boom saw more than 8,000 new residents in the city, with the total population climbing to 426,000 from July 2015 to July 2016.
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The population increase is the highlight of this year’s Halifax Index, an annual overview of the state of Nova Scotia’s capital city presented today by the Halifax Partnership.
Ian Munro, chief economist with the economic development organization, calls the population growth – which beat out the national average – “spectacular.”
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GDP growth was also strong in 2016, ticking up 2.2 per cent, but is expected to taper off this year as some large projects wind down.
Under the index’s quality-of-life indicator, the overall crime rate dropped 3 per cent in Halifax in 2015, the most recent year available, but violent crime surged 5 per cent.
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