Statistics Canada has released its recent sub-provincial population estimates for 2016/17 and the results find that
population is still growing faster in the Prairies
well as parts of Ontario but the two major northern
Ontario CMAs are not in the pack.
According the Statistics Canada, the 10 CMAs with the highest population
growth in 2016/2017 were in either the Prairies or Ontario. In 2016/2017, the
population growth rate was 2.0% or higher in four CMAs: Saskatoon (+2.8%),
Regina (+2.4%), Guelph (+2.2%) and Ottawa–Gatineau (Ontario part) (+2.2 and were
followed by Toronto (+1.9%), Oshawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary (+1.8%
each), and Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo (+1.7%). The figure below shows the picture pretty clearly.
At the bottom of the rankings are Sudbury,
Thunder Bay and Saguenay. Sudbury is
third from the bottom with a population increase of only 0.1 percent. The population decreased in the Saguenay
(-0.2%) and Thunder Bay (-0.1%) CMAs for the fourth consecutive year with
Saguenay’s population decrease partly attributable to out-migration of young
adults aged 18 to live elsewhere in Quebec. In Thunder Bay, the number of
deaths surpassed the number of births, and has done so since 2006/2007,
contributing to its population decline.
