Regina vs Saskatoon
 

In the olden days (up to the middle 80's!) Regina was the most populous city of Sask.

Snapshot of 1981 populations: (from Wikipedia)
Regina: 162,613
S'toon: 154,210
Regina had 8k more people than S'toon back in the early 80's

Thirty years later (2011) Regina has 30k LESS people than Saskatoon.

Did S'toon annex outlying towns or some such thing?
I am curious as to what you guys think are some of the leading theories for the rise of Saskatoon relative to Regina

While there are obviously many factors at play, I'd suggest that it's related to the overall shift of Saskatchewan becoming more private-sector focused and less reliant on government to drive the economy. Saskatoon has always been the more entrepreneurial town while Regina has been the home of government. Therefore, most of the new business have been created in Saskatoon, taking advantage of the expansion of the economy that resulted from the growth of the resource sector.

At one time, Saskatchewan lived and died with the crops on a yearly basis. While still vital to the province's economy, agriculture no longer dominates the headlines as it once did. Rather the "Big 3" resources, oil, uranium and potash became the "sexy" sectors of the economy over the past 3 decades, with the majority of the businesses supporting those industries being based in Saskatoon, rather than Regina (though plenty of oil field businesses in the south-east and west-central parts of the province also). As well, Saskatoon has had many new businesses spun off from start-ups at the U of S, especially in the Ag Bio-tech and Computer tech sectors.

That's my quick two bits on the subject.

ps: No annexing of towns, either.

Question what is the land size of the metro areas .Regina has done extremely well on some of the the biggest projects in the province

I agree with Crisis. Government and Crowns plus all the spin-off jobs they create have not grown much since the 70's. Regina has also lost several major head offices including Viterra, Crown Life, Wascana Energy, and Ipsco.

I do think Regina is poised to at least keep pace with Saskatoon in the future. Regina has advantages in key sectors such as oil, pipelines/steel. refining, logistics and even potash development which recently has shifted to the Regina region from Saskatoon.

The presence of the U of S can't be ignored. Historically, it was roughly twice the size as the U of R. Not only does it attract immigrants, but has enabled tremendous business growth from alumni.

Rural to urban migration was the key growth factor in the 80s and 90s. Small town kids who went to the U of S tended to stay in Saskatoon. For whatever reason, the U of S has historically done a better job of attracting rural Saskatchewan students.

So very true , the stadium is a massive deal the two billion dollar by pass all the new high rises the new potash mines

Of those major projects listed above, the new potash mine work is the only one that is likely to contribute a significant amount of new long-term jobs. The others are great for the construction industry but won't create a bunch of new employment once completed.

https://www.saskjobs.ca/

view jobs by region
Regina (1664)

Saskatoon (1157)
Both are doing fine

What a useless thread is calgary doing better than Edmonton is kelowna doing better than abbotsford is kamloops doing better than Prince George, could go on forever it just doesn't matter. It is not a discussion even, there are way to many factors besides the jobs by region etc. cities progress at their own rate for multiple reasons, alot to do with policies and taxes.

Evraz's Canada operations are still headquartered in Regina.

Believe me it is not a head office. It reports to Chicago which reports to Moscow HQ. Similarly Viterra is called a Canadian head office, but report to executives elsewhere.

When the 2016 census results come out I would guess SKtoon will be more like +50K larger than Regina.

Metro I expect to be 310 vs. 245

The Metro land area
In Regina, the land area is 3,408.28 square kilometres with a population density of 61.8 persons per square kilometre. This compares to the national land area of 8,965,121.42 square kilometres with a population density of 3.7 persons per square kilometer

In Saskatoon, the land area is 5,214.52 square kilometres with a population density of 50.0 persons per square kilometre. This compares to the national land area of 8,965,121.42 square kilometres with a population density of 3.7 persons per square kilometres
maybe this has something to do about it Moosejaw has 35,000

I mean the City of Saskatoon has 40,000 more people than the City of Regina so it's not just a metro area thing.

IF the land mass was the same Regina would have an extra fifty thousand people

:facepalm:

Please, can we not have this silly debate again. It's Christmas.

CMA boundaries are determined by Statistics Canada based on commuter shed. I don't know the exact metrics but Saskatoon is able to draw workers from a larger area than Regina is. And no, Moose Jaw is (for good reason) not counted within the extent of Regina CMA. The Saskatoon CMA boundary isn't some arbitrary polygon drawn up by Saskatoon city council to jury rig its population into being larger than Regina... its simply a larger city, which doesn't necessarily make it a *better* city. No reason to get hung up on it!

Really, Saskatoon and Regina are so extremely similar in almost every way. They are both small prairie cities that have their good and bad things and have so much in common compared to anywhere else in the world. But you would never think that by asking the locals ;)

In that spirit, Merry Christmas to all on this forum! - including everyone in the Queen City.

Seconded!