Some excellent, good, and lukewarm news for St. John's from the city's latest State of the Economy report.
In 1992, 32.1% of the NL population lived in the St. John's CMA. By 2013, that had risen to 38.7%
St. John's CMA’s share of total provincial GDP is 48%.
From 2012 to 2013:
Read GDP grew 4.4%
Personal income grew 4.7%
Retail trade grew 3.9%
Unemployment rate dropped to 6.1%
In 2013, the CMA (not just the city proper, but the entire Northeast Avalon) recorded it's 12th consecutive population increase.
Between the 2001 and 2011 census years, the population of the communities surrounding the capital city grew by 23.1% while the population of the City of St. John’s increased 7.0%.
1/4 of Memorial University of Newfoundland's students in 2013 were from away (27.7%); normally, MUN is dominated upwards of 85% by Newfoundlanders.
Average weekly earnings in St. John's have increased 57% since January, 2005.
(Would you rather live in Edmonton 1 or Edmonton 2?
)
Retail sales have increased 71% over the past 10 years.
Office vacancy rates are way down.
Office market rental rates increased to $31.05 per sq. ft. in 2013, an increase of 67% over the gross rental rate in 2006.
Passenger traffic reached a record high at St. John's International Airport. The number of passenger movements increased 2.7% in 2013 to approximately 1.5 million.
Tourism revenues in St. John’s rose 8.5% to $214.3 million in 2012.
St. John's had the 2nd highest hotel occupancy rate (73.4%) of major Canadian destinations in 2013. The St. John’s rate increased 1.2% points from 2012.
http://www.stjohns.ca/sites/default/...Mar%202014.pdf