Sudbury's population grows 1.6%

Greater Sudbury has surpassed 160,000 residents, according to the latest numbers from Statistics Canada, continuing a slow upward trend since 1996.

The population has increased 1.6 per cent since the last Census profile in 2006. Greater Sudbury's population now stands at 160,770. The last recorded data from Statistics Canada in 2006 showed Greater Sudbury's population at 158,258. Five years prior, statistics showed Sudbury's population at 155,219, a 1.7 per cent increase over 1996.

Mayor Marianne Matichuk said the 2011 Census demonstrates the city is on the move as its population has increased by more than 2,500 people in the past five years.

“The expansion of our economic engines and the pursuit of new opportunities have played a key role in our city’s increase,” she said, in a press release.

“Each year we strive to grow our community by attracting international businesses, welcoming and fostering skilled immigrants and continuing to work in collaboration with businesses, community partners and all levels of government to ensure that Greater Sudbury is the best place to live, work and play.”

Elsewhere in northern Ontario, Timmins' population increased 0.4 per cent over the past five years and now stands at 43,165, up from 42,997 in 2006; North Bay's population increased one per cent to 64,043 up from the previous 63,424 in 2006; Sault Ste. Marie's population declined 0.4 per cent in 2011 to 79,800, down from the previous 80,098 in 2006; Thunder Bay's population also decreased in 2011, down to 121,596 from the previous 122,907 in 2006.

The province's population as a whole grew to 12,851,821 in 2011, a 5.7 per cent increase over 2006. This is slightly lower than the growth of 6.6 per cent between 2001 and 2006, and the lowest population growth since the period from 1981 to 1986.

Nevertheless, this growth was close to the national average. Ontario received approximately 96,000 fewer immigrants in the past five years than in the period 2001 to 2006, and migratory losses to the other provinces and territories were approximately twice as large.

Compared to the previous five-year period (2001 to 2006), the rate of population growth between 2006 and 2011 has increased in all provinces and territories except Ontario, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, according to the report. Furthermore, all provinces and most territories saw its population increase between 2006 and 2011.

Two provinces had seen their population decline between 2001 and 2006, namely Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan.

The largest increases in population growth rate were in Saskatchewan, Yukon, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba.
Of all provinces and territories, Yukon, at 11.6 per cent, has experienced the largest population growth between 2006 and 2011. As in the previous two periods (1996 to 2001 and 2001 to 2006), Alberta posted the highest population growth among the 10 provinces since 2006 at 10.8 per cent, almost double the national average of 5.9 per cent.

Nationwide, between 2006 and 2011, the population grew by 5.9 to 33,476,688, up slightly from the previous period (2001 to 2006), when it grew by 5.4 per cent.

Canada's population growth between 2006 and 2011 was the highest among G8 countries, as was the case in the previous period (2001 to 2006), according to the Census report. Every province and most territories saw its population increase between 2006 and 2011.

Canada's slightly higher population growth since 2006 is a result of small increases in fertility, the number of non-permanent residents and, to a lesser extent, the number of immigrants.

Since the beginning of the 2000s, Canada's population growth has been driven mainly by migratory increase, since natural increase, or the difference between births and deaths, now only accounts for about one-third of this growth.

Canada's substantial migratory increase largely explains why it ranks first for population growth among the G8 countries. The population growth of the United States and of France, for example, is mainly a result of natural increase, with migratory increase being proportionally lower in those countries, according to the Census report.

For a more detailed look at the Census report, visit this link.

Posted by Arron Pickard