Population of Winnipeg CMA (July 1, 2015)
 

The City of Winnipeg estimates the population of the Winnipeg CMA to be 794,000, on July 1.

I think the population may be slightly higher, as Manitobans make their way back from Alberta, due to the oil price collapse, and subsequent recession and massive layoffs.

My guess is 795,211

Any guesses?

If you look at the estimate, it calls for Winnipeg to hit 835,400 by 2019. It won't be that long until one million is in the crosshairs.

I know that this forum tends to overvalue the importance of sheer population, but it is still pretty formidable given that Winnipeg was more or less left for dead in the mid-90s. We still have our challenges, but this city has picked itself up off the mat in some ways.

It's encouraging to see Manitoba growing for the last decade, but to come within striking distance of 1,000,000 we would have to hope hydro electricity becomes the new oil. Additionally, there are tons of disadvantages to rapid population growth. Just ask people who were born and raised in places like Calgary.

^ Keep adding 10K per year as per the City's estimates, and we'll be there in 20 years. Not that far off, really. Nor does that require some kind of sustained breakneck population growth pace... population growth here looks very different than what Calgary went through from the mid 90s up until now.

Funny you should say that because it probably will. On the other hand I can't think of any good reason why every other province in Canada couldn't just build their own dams and generating stations.

My wife was born and raised in Calgary and we moved to Winnipeg in 2009. She prefers Winnipeg.

I don't want Winnipeg to grow bigger. I want Winnipeg just to be a bit more affluent and successful.

I agree completely. In my previous posts I pointed out the trend in population growth, but that doesn't mean I'm rooting for the city to add people as fast as possible.

I'd be happy with modest, almost imperceptible population growth but focused on improving the city's overall prosperity.

I can't remember where I read it, I will see if I can find it......I read that there is a population range around 800,000 to 850,000 people where the increase starts to snowball a bit as the market size grows in density.

I understand that there are many different factors surrounding growth but there is apparently something to this number in the 800,000s where cities don't seem to stay there for too long.

Do those numbers include all the people living just outside the Perimeter (East St Paul, La Salle, Oak Bank, etc) that are effective part of Winnipeg?

Details here:

https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-r...&GK=CMA&GC=602

It includes the municipalities you would expect... Selkirk is the most notable exception, and it appears from the map that Stonewall, Stony Mountain and the RM of St Andrews are out too , are there any others?

(Kind of surprising that Stonewall is out given that it is slowly turning into a commuter suburb...)

In my 11 years in the oil patch in Alberta - only ever met 2 people that were from Winnipeg - both commuted back and forth - amongst the 1000's of guys I met.....

These comuter suburbs are really borthering me. RM of Springfield is such a joke right now. Every single shoddy subdivision gets approved. Have you seen the the new house on 15 just east of Dugald? Who approved another driveway onto such a busy highway. And the farmers in Springfield and tache are paying for these city kids to go to school while the rest of their taxes go to a new lagoon in Oakbank instead of ditch maintenance.

A respectable opinion to be sure. Just to point something out there : Population growth does confer a few advantages on any given area.

A crowd attracts a crowd so you get more entertainment (think concerts, sports teams, performance art, etc.) shopping choices, job opportunities, educational venues, and so on.

I don't think Winnipeg is growing at such breakneck speed that we have to worry about uncontrolled development (or lack thereof) but in any case there are still advantages to it.

Winnipeg is too sprawly to ever be more well off without population growth.

Improving solar generation and batteries will make centralized power generation obsolete in 20 years. Every dollar hydro puts into a new dam or bi-pole 3 is a waste.

Is it improving that quickly though? It seems like a lofty goal to produce the electricity required to replace hydro dams given the steadily growing population both here and the US states Manitoba exports to.

It's not improving that quickly. Natural gas technology would have been a far better investment.

Strange. I've come across a dozen or so Winnipeggers, and all of them were living in Calgary or Edmonton. I went to the Jets-Oilers game this March at Rexall Place. The amount of Jets fans there was unreal.

That's a lot more than 20 years away.

Even if you can match the generating power of a dam, you've still got to find something that's less intrusive on the environment. I don't know how many panels you'd need to equal just one dam but I'm sure it's in the tens of thousands. Efficiency is %20 for the average panel so hydro is still the best bet by a long shot.

Kind of hard to see, but this is from Elon Musk. This is present day technology.

https://fusiondotnet.files.wordpress...ng?w=516&h=279

That's basically a 1/4 of the Texas Panhandle required to power the entire US. And, most of this would be on home rooftops.

http://fusion.net/story/129075/elon-...-s-with-solar/

It certainly is possible to power a home with solar but not possible to provide hot water, clothes drying or heating.

Large infrastructure investments would have to be made by every homeowner. Enormous efforts would have to be made on conservation education.

Every refrigerator would have to be replaced, present day models draw too much power for solar.

Say goodbye to air conditioning.