Halifax Population & Growth

[Mr.Zero33]

Atlantic Lotto should give a Million dollars to the Million's person.

[Marcel_B]

Originally Posted by someone123

And Ottawa now has a nice transit system.

Not sure I would agree with that statement. I moved from Halifax to Ottawa six years ago and have experienced nothing but challenges with OCTranspo. If they show up, the so called express buses are never on time. The LRT is broken/late/off the track/stuck at a station most of the time. The express buses only run a handful of times in the morning and again in the afternoon. If you miss the last one, the milk run is about 1.5 hours to get to the 'burbs.

At least in Halifax, I could take one from Portland Hills to downtown throughout the day (at least before I moved in 2015).

Unless your statement refers to a time before I got here where it was reaaaaally bad, then I wouldn't know.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Marcel_B

Not sure I would agree with that statement.

I probably should have worded it a bit differently. All I meant is that they have their rail system now including some underground stations. I have not been there in years and don't know how well it is managed.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by someone123

I probably should have worded it a bit differently. All I meant is that they have their rail system now including some underground stations. I have not been there in years and don't know how well it is managed.

When I moved to Ottawa from the Maritimes in 2013 using their BRT network was very eye-opening - They had dedicated, bus-only routes! They had actual stations! They ran at frequencies that were more frequent than 15 or 30 minutes!

But the longer you're there the more you realize the flaws. The bus-only routes were congested with buses backed up in traffic. The stations were too cold in the winter and provided no shade in the summer. The frequencies didn't matter if they were stuck in traffic and led to unreliable headways.

The O-Train is a vast improvement if it's operating as it should, and unfortunately for most of its existence it seems like it's been under some sort of repair or technical issues. It's a big step up over the BRT route but they really need to get their affairs in order because it has not been operating very well.

[q12]

ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT
(Updated: December 2021)

Preliminary estimates from Statistics Canada have Halifax's population on July 1, 2021, at 459,938. This is a 2.5% (+11,394) increase over 2020 - the largest increase in our history.


https://halifaxpartnership.com/resea...mic-dashboard/

With East Hants being added into Halifax's CMA the current estimate would be around 485,000.

December 2022, Halifax will likely pass 500,000.

Also this data was released early because of an emergency situation in Atlantic Canada:

Preliminary population estimates for municipalities in Atlantic provinces, as of July 1, 2021

Released: 2021-11-26

In response to emergency situations in Atlantic provinces (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick), preliminary population estimates (as of July 1, 2021) for municipalities of these provinces are available today upon request. Preliminary subprovincial population estimates for all provinces and territories will be released on January 13, 2022.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/dail...11126h-eng.htm
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/d...df?st=VOlo7h08

[DigitalNinja]

Originally Posted by q12

Also this data was released early because of an emergency situation in Atlantic Canada:

I wonder what they mean by emergency situation? Is it because of the large population increase here?

[q12]

Originally Posted by DigitalNinja

I wonder what they mean by emergency situation? Is it because of the large population increase here?

^This has to be the only situation where an emergency related to population statistics is declared?

Maybe Halifax (HRM) needs to take action based on this emergency and build some light rail/street car/Monorail. Call the city and tell them Statistics Canada has declared the recent population growth an emergency.

The emergency sounds like the movie World War Z where because of a virus everyone took refuge in Nova Scotia while they developed a vaccine.

• Video Link

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by DigitalNinja

I wonder what they mean by emergency situation? Is it because of the large population increase here?

The recent Road washouts in Newfoundland and the infrastructure damages in Cape Breton allows affected Communities to access Federal disaster relief funds. Different sized communities are eligible for more sometimes. The most recent Census data builds a better argument.

The fact that Marine Atlantic and Oceanex are running at a load and go schedule directly to Argentia and St Johns' got the attention of folks in Ottawa. Its not every day that an Operational Training Squadron ( 403 Squadron from CFB Gagetown ) becomes an air Taxi service 700 Nautical mile from their home base.

[q12]

Originally Posted by Dartguard

The recent Road washouts in Newfoundland and the infrastructure damages in Cape Breton allows affected Communities to access Federal disaster relief funds. Different sized communities are eligible for more sometimes. The most recent Census data builds a better argument.

The fact that Marine Atlantic and Oceanex are running at a load and go schedule directly to Argentia and St Johns' got the attention of folks in Ottawa. Its not every day that an Operational Training Squadron ( 403 Squadron from CFB Gagetown ) becomes an air Taxi service 700 Nautical mile from their home base.

Makes sense. Looks like they did the same for BC because of the floods:

Preliminary population estimates for municipalities in British Columbia, as of July 1, 2021

Released: 2021-11-19

In response to emergency situations in British Columbia, preliminary population estimates (as of July 1, 2021) for municipalities of this province are available today upon request. Preliminary subprovincial population estimates for all provinces and territories will be released on January 13, 2022.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/dail...11119i-eng.htm

[OldDartmouthMark]

Low vacancy rate and increases in tent colonies causing them to build modular homes for the homeless? Plus population increasing at unprecedented rates?

Perhaps that's what they mean by an emergency situation?

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Low vacancy rate and increases in tent colonies causing them to build modular homes for the homeless? Plus population increasing at unprecedented rates?

Perhaps that's what they mean by an emergency situation?

I believe federal disaster funding is linked to population data by some formula, and StatsCan is trying to keep it up to date in light of recent weather catastrophes which may qualify for aid.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Saul Goode

I believe federal disaster funding is linked to population data by some formula, and StatsCan is trying to keep it up to date in light of recent weather catastrophes which may qualify for aid.

Makes total sense.

When I hear population growth and emergency spoken of together, I think of two things first and foremost: housing crisis and climate change.

[q12]

So Halifax is now adding nearly 1,000 people per month.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by q12

So Halifax is now adding nearly 1,000 people per month.

Which sounds like a higher number than new dwellings being built, though presumably there will be 2 - 5 people per dwelling. I'm guessing the city needs to add between 200 - 500 new places for people to live per month?

Anybody have any data on population increase vs actual dwellings being added?

[someone123]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Which sounds like a higher number than new dwellings being built, though presumably there will be 2 - 5 people per dwelling. I'm guessing the city needs to add between 200 - 500 new places for people to live per month?

I'm not sure if it's still happening but household sizes were shrinking for a long time too, so it's possible there would be a demand for more housing units even if the population weren't growing.

Another aspect is the size of new units. Around here "1 unit" may be a 2,000 square foot house (rare) or a 500 square foot condo (common). In Halifax the construction is mostly multi-unit too. A good metric would be something like amount of living space per person. I would guess that Canadian cities are not growing the amount of space per person much.

[Half-Axed]

Getting closer:



I'm leaving the population clock open on my desktop the next few days hoping to get screenshots as it flips from 999,999 to 1m.

Originally Posted by q12

Looks like we are on track to hit 1,000,000 sometime during December, 2021!

[ILoveHalifax]

I too have this open on my desktop and watching - I think it is quite exciting

[DigitalNinja]

Originally Posted by Half-Axed

Getting closer:



I'm leaving the population clock open on my desktop the next few days hoping to get screenshots as it flips from 999,999 to 1m.

There have been about 3 people added to it since you posted this in the last ~4 hours. Should be about 12 days before we hit 1 mil So about the 22nd or 23rd of December.

[teddifax]

What about the 100 Afghan immigrants that landed here last night that are staying in the province?

[DigitalNinja]

Originally Posted by teddifax

What about the 100 Afghan immigrants that landed here last night that are staying in the province?

I think the clock is just based on a algorithm. I don't think it's very accurate to what the real population is. Although the algorithm is updated periodically. I think it's quite likely our real population has reached and is past 1 million at the moment.