B.C. Population Estimates CMA/CA 2015
 

This is a list of population estimates based on July 2015. This information is based on B.C. stats.

http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/Statist...Estimates.aspx


Vancouver 2,513,869 1.2% change 2014/2015
Victoria 362,037 1.1%
Kelowna 195,466 3.2%
Abbotsford-Mission 180,139 1.4%
Nanaimo 104,671 1.8%
Kamloops 102,995 0.1%
Chilliwack 101,143 3.8%
Prince George 83,826 -2.1%
Vernon 61,425 2.3%
Courtney 56,174 0.6%

Some interesting numbers. Chilliwack and Kelowna were both on a tear. Prince George and Kamloops had minus and very slow growth respectively.

British Columbia city and district muncipality population estimates 2015
 

This is a list of population estimates based on July 2015. This information is based on B.C. stats.

http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/Statist...Estimates.aspx


Vancouver city 648,608 0.8% 2014/2015
Surrey city 526,004 2.0%
Burnaby city 238,209 1.5%
Richmond city 207,773 0.8%
Coquitlam city 144,668 2.1%
Abbotsford city 141,498 1.3%
Kelowna city 124,378 2.3%
Langley DM 116,863 1.5%
Saanich DM 110,803 -0.2%
Delta DM 100,652 -0.8%
Nanaimo city 90,524 2.4%
Kamloops city 89,995 0.6%
Chilliwack city 86,857 4.8%
North Vancouver DM 85,974 -1.1%
Victoria city 84,793 1.6%
Maple Ridge city 81,247 0.5%
New Westminster city 71,665 2.1%
Prince George city 71,363 -2.7%
Port Coquitlam city 60,246 0.3%

Chilliwack city was the fastest growing cities above 60,000 followed by Nanaimo and Kelowna. While Prince George city, North Vancouver DM, Delta DM, and Saanich DM had negative growth for cities and DM above 60,000.

Mobility

Mobility refers to the movement of individuals on a geographic basis, whether it’s international migration between B.C. and the rest of the world or inter-provincial migration between B.C. and other Canadian jurisdictions. The term mobility encompasses those statistics that show the number of migrants, where they’re going to and where they’re coming from.

http://bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsB.../Mobility.aspx


Some great information to check out. Quarterly and Annual migration flow maps and data.

I remember when Courtenay was still only 20 000-ish people. The Comox Valley has really exploded in growth over the past 15 years.

What's most interesting to me and rarely ever reported is that the Lower Mainland as a region is closing in on 3 million people now with Metro Van, Abbotsford, Chilliwack and some of the other small municipalities thrown in. That's a pretty huge testament to how the growth has been (some people still think Vancouver is a 2 million level pop region based on older stats).

BC divided into three equal parts...

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...26&oe=58B77C1C

Crossed my Facebook feed (from Vintage Vernon). Interesting

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...psmyx6znc4.jpg

How long till Surrey passes Vancouver? will we have to call it Greater Surrey once it happens? :P

Just like Greater Saanich :)

I thought this already hapened a couple of years ago.

Not sure if there are any more recent figures, but as of the 2011 census Surrey was still 140,000 people back of Vancouver. That number is definitely closer now, but it will still be a while until Surrey catches up.

Surrey will probably pass Vancouver in 10 years.

Never realized Saanich was bigger than Victoria, that's a part of BC I haven't been to in a very, very long time...

It was the 1966 census when Saanich passed the population of Victoria

Saanich 58845

Victoria 57453

The census before 1961

Victoria 54941

Saanich 48876

http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/Statist...hangePage=6_20

At the current rate, 2036 or 2041 census.

B.C Population estimates CMA/CA 2016
 

I understand the Census for stats Canada will be out Feb 8th

Since I posted the estimates last year I thought I would continue this year also.

This is a list of population estimates based on July 2016. This information is based on B.C. stats.

http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/Statist...Estimates.aspx



Vancouver 2,558,029 1.6% change 2015/2016
Victoria 365,361 1.2%
Kelowna 197,017 1.6%
Abbotsford-Mission 181,169 1.4%
Nanaimo 107,462 2.5%
Chilliwack 104,662 1.4%
Kamloops 104,449 0.8%
Prince George 83,494 -1.1%
Vernon 62,196 0.8%
Courtney 56,359 0.9%


Looks like Nanaimo has some strong growth. Both Chilliwack and Kelowna have slowed somewhat. Chilliwack has passed Kamloops for 6th largest.
Prince George is still losing population.

British Columbia city and district municipalities population estimates 2016
 

This is a list of population estimates based on July 2016. This information is based on B.C. stats.

http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/Statist...Estimates.aspx

Vancouver 653,046 0.9% change from 2015/2016
Surrey 543,940 3.2%
Burnaby 238,728 1.1%
Richmond 213,392 1.5%
Coquitlam 147,619 2.1%
Abbotsford 141,485 0.9%
Kelowna 125,737 1.4%
Langley,DM 122,418 3.3%
Saanich 110,889 0.3%
Delta 101,997 0.0%
Nanaimo 93,351 2.9%
Kamlooops 91,402 1.1%
Chilliwack 90,390 1.7%
North Vancouver,DM 86,602 0.3%
Maple Ridge 85,653 3.5%
Victoria 85,192 0.6%
New Westminster 73,771 2.5%
Prince George 70,912 -1.4%
Port Coquitlam 61,187 1.2%

Fastest growing are Maple Ridge, Langley and Surrey.

Interesting note though Victoria and Saanich were slow growing. The fastest growing area again this year is Langford at 39,936 6.7%

Abbotsford was not growing that fast but Mission is 39,873 3.9%

Those must be the regional district boundaries? BC's population is actually even more concentrated than the map suggests, because hardly anybody lives in that vast yellow area on the southern island west of Victoria CMA.

Capital Regional District:
pop. 360,000
2,340 square km

Victoria CMA:
pop. 345,000
696 square km

The CRD west of Victoria CMA could also be coloured blue, is my point.

Not many surprises in those numbers, except Port Moody! That was for YEARS one of the fastest growing cities, through the 90s and even up to a couple years ago. Now it's shrinking??? What a turnaround wow

150 Mile House is the fastest growing city in BC, but that aside, Surrey and Saanich will never be more dense and Vancouver and Victoria, and it's density the determines who is "greater."

Delete. Wrong thread

2016 Census CMA populations in BC:
Vancouver = 2463431
Victoria = 367770
Kelowna = 194882
Abbotsford - Mission = 180518
Nanaimo = 104936
Kamloops = 103811
Chilliwack = 101512
Prince George = 86622
Vernon = 61334
Courtenay = 54157
Duncan = 44451
Penticton = 43432
Campbell River = 37861
Parksville = 28922
Fort St. John = 28396
Cranbrook = 26083
Port Alberni = 25112
Quesnel = 23146
Squamish = 19893
Nelson = 18307
Williams Lake = 18277
Salmon Arm = 17904
Powell River = 16783
Terrace = 15723
Prince Rupert = 12687
Dawson Creek = 12178

Fastest growth since 2011(%)
Squamish = 13.8
Kelowna = 8.4
Chilliwack = 8.1
Fort St. John = 7.6
Nanaimo = 7.1
Victoria = 6.7
Vancouver = 6.5
Abbotsford - Mission = 6.1
Kamloops = 5.1
Dawson Creek = 5.1
Campbell River = 4.9
Vernon = 4.7
Courtenay = 4.6
Cranbrook = 4.2
Parksville = 4
Prince George = 2.8
Duncan = 2.8
Penticton = 2.5
Nelson = 1.8
Salmon Arm = 1.2
Terrace = 1
Powell River = 0.6
Williams Lake = -1.2
Port Alberni = -1.4
Quesnel = -1.8
Prince Rupert = -2.8

Increase in population (number of people since 2011)
Vancouver = 150103
Victoria = 23190
Kelowna = 15043
Abbotsford - Mission = 10327
Chilliwack = 7630
Nanaimo = 6915
Kamloops = 5057
Vernon = 2750
Squamish = 2414
Prince George = 2390
Courtenay = 2370
Fort St. John = 2016
Campbell River = 1765
Duncan = 1199
Parksville = 1100
Penticton = 1071
Cranbrook = 1046
Dawson Creek = 595
Nelson = 320
Salmon Arm = 221
Terrace = 154
Powell River = 94
Williams Lake = -213
Port Alberni = -353
Prince Rupert = -365
Quesnel = -420

Population density (people/sq. km)
Vancouver = 854.6
Victoria = 528.3
Dawson Creek = 499.8
Parksville = 353.3
Abbotsford - Mission = 297.3
Terrace = 212.7
Squamish = 188.4
Duncan = 118.9
Salmon Arm = 108.1
Courtenay = 90.9
Nanaimo = 81.9
Chilliwack = 70.2
Kelowna = 67.1
Vernon = 58.9
Prince Rupert = 54.2
Fort St. John = 45.7
Penticton = 25.2
Campbell River = 21.8
Powell River = 21
Kamloops = 18.3
Nelson = 14.9
Port Alberni = 14.5
Williams Lake = 6.9
Cranbrook = 5.7
Prince George = 4.9
Quesnel = 1.1

Dawson density!

Will Vernon and Kelowna and Penticton ever be combined into a single CMA?

100km long would be one big-aZZ city!

I can see a case for Kelowna-Vernon but not Penticton.

Lake country between Kelowna and Vernon is already sprawling towards eachother and theres already a bus that takes you to vernon from Kelowna.

Nice to see 3 cities: Nanaimo, Chilliwack and Kamloops all surpass the magical 100,000 population barrier in the same census period. All three areas are shedding the "small town" label and developing more independent economic identities.

This should be celebrated as it might be while until we see any other municipality get close to achieving that marker. (unless something drastic happens in Prince George).

Congrats to all 3:tup::cheers:

I think Vernon will beat Prince George to the !00,000 mark.

That will be a long slow battle

I thought this was interesting. I understand that wikipedia is a user friendly and is not always accurate. I thought this would be interesting to post and see if anyone can notice some errors. Urban area was the old name for population centres.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...itish_Columbia

^ the most obvious inconsistency I see is city vs. metro for certain cities.

For instance the Kelowna number appears to include Westbank but the Vernon number does not appear to include Coldstream

British Columbia population estimates by CMA/CA 2017

This is a list of population estimates based on July 2017. This info is based on B.C. stats.

Vancouver 2592227 1.1% change 2016/2017
Victoria 374807 1.2%
Kelowna 199015 1.4%
Abbotsford-Mission 185039 1.2%
Nanaimo 109419 1.9%
Kamloops 106453 0.8%
Chilliwack 103048 1.2%
Prince George 82755 -0.7%
Vernon 63269 0.4%
Courtney 57505 1.2%
Penticton 46054 8.6%
Duncan 46050 1.4%

You will notice some differences between the 2016 estimate which was based on the 2011 census. While this estimate is based on the 2016 census. So the city of Chilliwack has come down from the previous estimate.
It was interesting to note the 8.6% year over year increase in Penticton.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/d...tion-estimates

I was thinking about how Nanaimo has a greater population than Kelowna or Abbotsford.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...itish_Columbia

They used the urban Kelowna number. The City of Kelowna itself only has 127,380 people as of the 2016 census. I wonder what the urban number includes? Not West Kelowna which had a population of 32,655 as of 2016. Westbank First Nation, which is intertwined in West Kelowna, adds about another 9,000 residents to the entire "Westbank". Westbank First Nation residents officially list Kelowna, BC as their city.

It's West Kelowna now, although there have been West Kelowna signs vandalized by people still bitter about not being Westbank.

The Kelowna CMA number includes West Kelowna, Lake Country and Peachland. Metro Kelowna is equivalent to the Regional District of the Central Okanagan.

So roughly 2.9 million in the Fraser Valley? Not too shabby. Would really be helpful for the region if there was better regional rail connectivity.

I was referring to that Wikipedia link above. Which doesn't really even make sense, it should be the 199,015 figure.

1 Vancouver Large urban 2,463,231
2 Victoria Large urban 367,770
3 Kelowna Large urban 151,957
4 Nanaimo Large urban 158,767
5 Abbotsford Medium 144,397

Ahh, sorry I didn't see that. Strange metric.

Based on conservative growth rates for Vancouver, Squamish, Abbotsford-Mission & Chilliwack (1% averaged annually) the Lower Mainland region should hit 3 million people by the end of the decade. I agree we could use significant improvements to regional transit infrastructure to handle this level of population growth...

British Columbia city and district muncipality population estimates 2017

This is a list of population estimates based on July 2017. This info is based on B.C. stats

Vancouver 656,164 0.7% change 2016/2017
Surrey 556,566 1.8%
Burnaby 234,433 0.1%
Richmond 219,273 2.2%
Coquitlam 150,144 1.2%
Abbotsford 145,102 1.6%
Langley,DM 127,730 3.8%
Kelowna 127,330 1.0%
Saanich,DM 115,864 0.4%
Delta,DM 102,679 0.3%
Nanaimo 94,743 1.8%
Kamloops 92,317 0.8%
Chilliwack 88,287 1.0%
North Vancouver,DM 85,842 -1.2%
Maple Ridge 87,713 1.8%
Victoria 86,130 0.6%
New Westminster 73,928 0.9%
Prince George 70,316 -0.6%
Port Coquitlam 62,194 1.1%

The three fastest growing municipalities Salmon Arm 9.25% Pentiction 6.36% and Ladysmith 5.93%

The three bottom municipalities Prince Rupert -4.35% Kitimat -3.60% and Terrace -3.10%

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/d...tion-estimates

A bit surprising to see Salmon Arm gaining so fast. I wonder if the Okanagan's skyrocketing real estate prices are driving people north.

I'm going to say that the gains in those areas have a lot to do with inter-provincial migration

I agree, Salmon Arm is a bit of an anomaly. I know that last year Pentiction was -4.8% It looks like it has just had people move back after leaving last year? So perhaps that is why it is up 6.4%?

Ladysmith, growth is probably connected to Nanaimo and the push for a regional center in the south of Nanaimo. Central Vancouver island has pretty much always had positive growth.

B.C.'s population passes 5 million, thanks to high international migration numbers

The population of British Columbia has passed the five million mark for the first time, according to a Statistics Canada estimation.


B.C.'s population increase is partly due to a trend among young international students. Many people who move to provinces like Ontario as foreign students move to B.C. after they graduate




https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...bers-1.4960225

The sub-provincial population estimates for July 1,2018 (release Jan 23,2019) are out:

Highlights:

5 fastest growing municipalities (yoy):

Ladysmith - 9,417 (+3.6%)

Langford - 39,368 (+2.9%)

Surrey - 569,065 (+2.7%)

Lake Country - 14,027 (+2.6%)

Salmon Arm - 19,299 (+2.6%)


5 largest Districts / CMAs:


Metro Vancouver (District = CMA) - 2,654,226 (+1.5%)

Capital Regional District (Victoria, Saanich,Langford) - 413,406 (+1.3%)
Victoria CMA is 396,509

Fraser Valley (Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission) - 319,120 (+1.5%)
Abbotford/Mission CMA is 193,823
Chilliwack CMA is 110,295

Kelowna CMA (Central Okanagan District) - 208,852 (+2.0%)

Nanaimo (Parksville, Qualicum) - 167,156 (+1.5%)
Nanaimo CMA is 112,949



Fun facts:
Vancouver Island now has approximately 840,000 people.

Kamloops CMA = 111,646

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/d...tion-estimates

Are Kamloops and Nanaimo designated as CMAs now?

I can't believe how fast Kelowna has grown over the years. I assume that the population increase in Lake Country is directly correlated to the increase in Kelowna. It's certainly no less expensive in Lake Country.

It's been a while since I was in Ladysmith but I have to think that the increase there is largely attributed to retirees moving there.

Thanks for the update.

Metro Van + Fraser Valley combined (aka the "Lower Mainland" region) is now at 3 million if you include a part of Squamish in the area (i.e. as per the ever-accurate Wikipedia definition - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Mainland).

This artificially important number is quite a feat in mentally thinking about the area; I remember growing up and thinking of the GVRD as a 2-million class region. Up and coming, but still solidly a mid-size by NA metropolitan standards - like today's Austin, Kansas Columbus or Cleveland. Nowadays though, it's closer to a St. Louis, Denver, Tampa or San Diego - what people might begin to think of as "large" cities.

Same goes (in a way) for the CRD in Victoria. 400k is a different class of thinking about a city (i.e. Halifax) than 300k (i.e. Saskatoon)

Another surprise I missed in recent estimates; I didn't realize PG eclipsed the 90k mark. We might see it join the 100k club in the next decade.

Kamloops, Nanaimo and Chilliwack all met Statistics Canada CMA criteria with the 2016 census, and will designated as such for the 2021 census.

The latest numbers show a much more broad-based growth across all regions. In the past, growth was concentrated in Metro Van and Kelowna, and all other areas (incl. Victoria, Nanaimo, and everywhere else) saw pretty low growth. These 2018 numbers show % growth in most places equal to or even equal to Vancouver area. That is a good sign!

Interesting, too, that the ongoing City of Vancouver-Surrey population horse race is down to a ~100,000-person separation:

Vancouver 656,164 0.7% change 2016/2017
Surrey 556,566 1.8%

Usual point, counter-point items that always come up: Surrey has 3x the land area... relative change vs actual numbers... ALR land as an obstacle... central place theory... etc.