The Big Atlantic Canada Statistics Thread

[darkharbour]

Originally Posted by Pugsley

The article was click-bait and the journalist and editor should be ashamed of the low-depth of research into this story. They wanted to sensationalize a story to get everyone all up in arms and click to read. The CMA (as discussed above) is more important than the city population proper. If we evaluated size by the city proper, Halifax is technically bigger than Miami (450K). And I think we can all agree that Halifax is no Miami.

Agreed, I am disappointed that CBC would even publish this. Why punch down at the city for no reason?

[bingun]

Originally Posted by darkharbour

Agreed, I am disappointed that CBC would even publish this. Why punch down at the city for no reason?

Clicks.

[someone123]

Municipal populations and tax base are important for determining the scope of projects the municipality can take on. Miami's the bigger metro area, but Halifax is a significant municipality with significant resources, even though HRM politicians often don't act that way.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Well, they did try to grow palm trees in Halifax a few years back, but they all died.

This was bad, clickbait-y reporting too. People have been growing palms with winter protection in Halifax for years (they post on Reddit for example); as far as I know some are still around and more established. It is a handful of Dartmouth city park palms that died. I wasn't surprised as they didn't put them in sheltered locations. Usually the successful ones are against a south-facing wall.

They tried and failed a monkey puzzle in the Public Gardens too but it had no winter protection and happened to be planted right before the worst winter in years around 2015 or so. There are some monkey puzzles around NS.

[KnoxfordGuy]

Ohhh I don't think people are that upset. It's something we all knew. The fact that SJ and Freddy city populations are within spitting distance of eacher is quite something. Look at the historic context. In 1871, the first Canadian census, Fredericton was 6,000 and Saint John was 28,800.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by darkharbour

Agreed, I am disappointed that CBC would even publish this. Why punch down at the city for no reason?

Pretty bush league for the CBC, who I expect better from. They should have at least waited for the official figures.

The only good thing to come out of this “news” is perhaps renewed enthusiasm for amalgamation of Greater Saint John… as the articles make it clear that amalgamation is a big part of why Fredericton’s city proper population may pass Saint John’s.

[q12]

Originally Posted by Nashe

CMAs as of July 1, 2025 (last year):

For funsies:

St. John's July 1, 2025: 243,478 July 1, 2026 (growth at 1.3%): 246,643 est
Halifax July 1, 2025: 544,834 July 1, 2026 (growth at 1.6%): 553,551 est

Another fun and significant milestone:

Halifax's CMA has passed the entire population of Newfoundland and Labrador (estimated at around 549,000 on the population clock).

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by q12

Another fun and significant milestone:

Halifax's CMA has passed the entire population of Newfoundland and Labrador (estimated at around 549,000 on the population clock).

Moncton's CMA population is greater than all of PEI.

[someone123]

It varies but around here you sometimes run into people with a limited understanding of Atlantic Canada and I think they believe the whole region is like Newfoundland, and they think of it as being maybe comparable to Northern Ontario in development. But the demographics show how big the difference is.

You sometimes also see a strange Western view that the Maritimes max out at towns/villages like Peggy's Cove or Lunenburg (quaint seaside wooden house areas), yet on the flip side Vancouver, Calgary, or Winnipeg may be discussed as very major cities, and people sometimes won't understand why Montreal might be more politically influential than Calgary. I think a lot of right-wing Albertans believe that Alberta makes up the bulk of the national economy, and is more significant than Ontario.

[Helladog]

I think it looks rather silly to focus on comparing populations of our smallish cities of such similar size. Folks from other provinces must think we're such a joke. Of course, the CBC started it all.

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by Helladog

I think it looks rather silly to focus on comparing populations of our smallish cities of such similar size. Folks from other provinces must think we're such a joke. Of course, the CBC started it all.

Hey, seniors league hockey is still competitive and fun.

[Taeolas]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Moncton's CMA population is greater than all of PEI.

I believe 8 of the 9 provinces have Capital Cities larget than the Population of PEI. And Freddy's doing its darndest (125k CMA vs 189k provincial) to make it 9 out of 10.

I saw the CBC article but didn't read it. I wonder if it was written or the idea was proposed by someone who's pushing for SJ Amalgamation. Sure CMA's are what matters and what people count. But the city limits also matter, and we've all agreed that SJ's city limits are burdened by its suburban communities that should have been folded into the main city decades ago.

This type of clickbait article is a way to get people talking and rumbling about the idea and what to do about it.

[nwalbert]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Pretty bush league for the CBC, who I expect better from. They should have at least waited for the official figures.

The only good thing to come out of this “news” is perhaps renewed enthusiasm for amalgamation of Greater Saint John… as the articles make it clear that amalgamation is a big part of why Fredericton’s city proper population may pass Saint John’s.

I unfortunately would not expect better from CBC.

All the signs in SJ are the best in the province and the long term outlook, if the province does not get in the way, are tremendous for SJ. I fully expect SJ to be #1 CMA again in my lifetime.

[Ire Narissis]

Originally Posted by nwalbert

I unfortunately would not expect better from CBC.

All the signs in SJ are the best in the province and the long term outlook, if the province does not get in the way, are tremendous for SJ. I fully expect SJ to be #1 CMA again in my lifetime.

I'm genuinely curious to hear a little more detail on your thoughts! It's hard for me to imagine Saint John overtaking Moncton again, but as a Saint John local I'm all for the possibility.

[bingun]

June Building Permit data was released today, and I did some analysis with the help of AI. Values are January-June throughout. 2026 has been a step down from 2025, but still strong numbers.

Let me know if you want me to analyze something specific.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

lol at St. John’s and Saint John both represented by shades of orange in the graphs 📊

Averaging building height of new builds per CMA would be interesting.

[bingun]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

lol at St. John’s and Saint John both represented by shades of orange in the graphs 📊

Averaging building height of new builds per CMA would be interesting.

No building height information in this dataset, I am afraid, but there are dwelling unit numbers. I will take a look at that later if I get a chance.

I will try and do something with just the NB CMAs too; Halifax tends to drown out the others, making it hard to compare.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

I'm guessing Halifax's graph would be even more disproportionate if there was data for average building height. Dwelling unit numbers per CMA would be interesting to see charted out, and would at least somewhat reflect average building height.

[bingun]

Here are some dwelling unit figures -





Here are some comparisons of NB CMAs without Halifax's overpowering presence. Moncton in 2025 was quite something! Reminder: these are all Jan-June values, not the total year.

[Pugsley]

What I find interesting is that Saint John, while not the highest in numbers, appears to have the steadiest year over year increases. The others appear to be wonky (up and down). I wonder how much of this is tied to the city's strategic targets for residential growth? Either way, a slow and steady consistently upwards trajectory is more appealing to investors, so perhaps they are slower but it could prove to be more of a reliable investment market in the long run.