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Top 10 trends of the 2017 Calgary Census

The results of the 2017 City of Calgary census are in, and our city’s population grew and there’s definite signs of a recovering economy.

Nenshi said that during boom years, the city struggled to keep up with infrastructure demands, and the recent slow down in population growth has provided opportunities to boost the economy by building needed infrastructure while also saving hundreds of millions of dollars on the city’s operating budget by forgoing growth in terms of city staff. The 2017 census data, which covers the period from April 2016 to April 2017, reveals the population of several neighbourhoods across the city increased, both in new communities on the city’s fringe and established neighbourhoods in the core. [Calgary Herald]

You can read the census results in their entirety online here, but here’s the top 10 trends we found from this year’s census:

  1. Calgary’s population grew by 11,166 residents to 1,246,337 people, this is similar to population growth experienced in 2004.
  2. Natural increase (result of the excess of births over deaths) was 10,192 which is down by 591 persons.
  3. Net migration (difference between total population growth and natural increase) showed an increase of 974 people.
  4. Housing stock in Calgary increased by 7,170 units, which brings the total number of units in the city to 506,392 (up 1.44 per cent).
  5. Vacant dwellings in Calgary is up by 2,710 from last year, with the total sitting at 23,553 units. Vacancy rate in Calgary is up 4.3 per cent from last year, sitting at 4.76 per cent.
  6. The number of dwellings under construction is down from last year, at 6,537 currently.
  7. Calgary’s fastest growing community this year was Auburn Bay, with a population increase of 1,870 new residents. Next fastest-growing was Evanston (1,621 increase), Legacy (1,560 increase), Nolan Hill (1,556 increase), Skyview Ranch (1,465 increase), Mahogany (1,444 increase), the Beltline (1,261 increase) and Redstone (1,081 increase).
  8. There are now 471,176 occupied dwellings. Of this number, 324,231 or 68.81 per centare owner- occupied, slightly down from last year.
  9. Non-residential use dwellings are up 350 units to 1,727.
  10. Wards 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 and 14 all saw population increases from last year.

The in-depth 2017 City of Calgary census results are available online here.