2001 census highlights

Posted: 6:08 AM CST Wednesday, Mar. 13, 2002

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This article was published 13/03/2002 (8859 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

2001 census highlights

Canada’s national population increased to 30,007,094, an increase of 4.0 per cent from the 1996 census — matching the smallest five-year growth rate in the country’s history. 1981-’86 also showed growth of 4.0 per cent.

Canada’s population growth rate over the last five years was lower than the growth rate of the United States — the first time that’s happened in 100 years.

Manitoba’s population increased by just 0.5 per cent, or 6,000 people, in the past five years. That is down from growth of two per cent shown in the 1996 census.

Steinbach was Manitoba’s fastest growing city, with a 2001 population of 9,227, up 8.8 per cent from its 1996 population of 8,478.

The population of the metropolitan area of Winnipeg increased by 0.6 per cent over the last five years. When the census data were collected in May 2001, the population of what Statistics Canada refers to as the census metropolitan area of Winnipeg was 671,274, compared with 667,093 in 1996.

The new census data also shows the population of the city of Winnipeg is 619,544, compared to 618,477 in the 1996 census. The city’s population increased by 0.2 per cent over the five-year period.

Ring communities that surround the city of Winnipeg grew four times more than the city. The RM of East St. Paul alone grew more than Winnipeg. The rural municipality grew by 1,240 residents over the past five years, versus just 1,067 for Winnipeg. Winnipeg is about 100 times its size.

Winnipeg was ranked as Canada’s eighth largest metropolitan area in the 2001 census, behind Quebec City and ahead of Hamilton. In 1996, it was ranked eighth.

Immigration was the main source of Canada’s population growth between 1996 and 2001 — for the first time in the post-war period.

Alberta had the highest provincial population growth in Canada, up 10.3 per cent from the 1996 census.

A number of provinces and territories experienced a population loss since 1996, including Newfoundland (-7.0 per cent), the Yukon (-6.8 per cent), the Northwest Territories (-5.8 per cent) New Brunswick (-1.2 per cent), Saskatchewan (-1.1 per cent) and Nova Scotia (-0.1 per cent).

The trend of the “urbanization” of Canada’s population is continuing. In 2001, 79.4 per cent of Canadians lived in urban centres of 10,000 people or more.

Big cities are attracting more people than ever. In 2001, more than half the country’s population (51 per cent) lived in four major urban centres — the metropolitan Montreal area; the Golden Horseshoe in southern Ontario; the Calgary-Edmonton corridor and British Columbia’s Lower Mainland.

Suburban areas around major cities are growing at a higher rate than most of the cities they surround. Statistics Canada dubs this the “doughnut effect.” The urban cores of the country’s 27 largest metropolitan areas had a population increase of 4.3 per cent over the last five years, while their surrounding suburban communities increased by 8.5 per cent

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