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Some Okanagan communities grow while others shrink

The City of Vernon grew 3.4 per cent in 2015 to over 40,400. City of Vernon

The latest population numbers from BC Stats show some communities in the region grew significantly last year while others shrunk.

Lake Country led the pack. Its population grew 7.6 per cent to over 14,000 in 2015. Meanwhile, Keremeos increased its population by 5.7 per cent to over 1,400 and West Kelowna saw a 5.3 per cent increase in the number of residents to over 43,400.

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It’s news West Kelowna is celebrating.

“From an economic perspective this news is fantastic, although not very surprising as it certainly corroborates what we’ve been seeing in the business and development community in West Kelowna for the past year,” says West Kelowna’s economic development officer John Perrott.

Kelowna, Vernon and Coldstream also grew last year. Kelowna’s population was up 2.3 per cent to over 124,300. Vernon grew 3.4 per cent to over 40,400. Coldstream’s population increased by 2.8 per cent to over 10,800.

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However, Penticton lost a few residents in 2015. The population decreased 0.3 per cent to over 33,900. The populations of Peachland, Enderby and Princeton also contacted between 1.2 and 1.5 per cent.

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