Thursday, July 24, 2014

Calgary’s population saw largest growth ever in 2014, reached nearly 1.2 million: Census

Calgary’s population grew by its largest margin ever and now stands at just shy of 1.2 million people, according to the results of the 2014 municipal census, released Tuesday.

A total of 1,195,194 people were recorded in the annual count, an increase of 38,508 people, or 3.3 per cent, over 2013.

“Calgary experienced this year its greatest single year of growth in population,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said.

Saddleridge was the fastest-growing community, with an increase of 2,373 residents from 2013.
The next fastest-growing communities were Auburn Bay with 2,242 new residents, Cranston with 1,858, Skyview Ranch with 1,759, Panorama Hills with 1,384, Aspen Woods with 1,095 and Beltline with 1,091.

That marks a 5.4 per cent year-over-year increase in Beltline, which Nenshi said was part of a larger shift toward growth in mature communities.

“I would suspect that over time we will see the Beltline become the most populated neighbourhood in the city,” the mayor said.

The core-area community is currently Calgary’s third largest, with 21,357 residents, just behind Evergreen’s 21,386 residents. Panorama Hills remains the largest community with 25,130 people.
Beltline Communities president Rob Taylor said the area’s growth is largely due to “Millennial urbanites” seeking a downtown lifestyle but also a growing number of “empty nesters” opting to move from large suburban homes after they retire and their kids move out.

The city also released a corrected version of the 2013 census Monday, as returning officer Barb Clifford noted there was a rare error in those numbers.
“That’s the first one I’ve had in 25 years,” she said.

A “tabulation error” occurred during the city’s migration from a manual to automated process of census-data recording, she added, that resulted in about 7,000 preschool-aged children not being counted.

The Calgary Board of Education – which uses city census data for school planning –  noticed the error and it was quickly corrected, Clifford said.

No comments:

Post a Comment