The small town of Campbellton, New Brunswick saw one of the sharpest declines in Canada, losing almost 10 per cent of its population since 2011.

New Brunswick is the first province since 2006 to report a decline in population - shrinking by 0.5 per cent between 2011 and 2016.

In the first tranche of 2016 census data released Wednesday, Cape Breton - long a fixture of the "lowest growth rates" category - registered sixth on that list of ever-smaller urban centres, contracting by 2.9 per cent between 2011 and 2016.