Census Data shows Prince Rupert population decline continues

While local real estate agents and politicians may wish otherwise, no matter how you look up the numbers, the 2011 Census shows that the population of Prince Rupert continued to go down instead of up.

The data released on Wednesday shows that overall Prince Rupert's population dropped 2.4 percent in the five years between the 2006 and 2011 census reports.

It continues the downward trend of Prince Rupert's population which has seen the numbers trend downwards over the last decade.

In 2001, the Census reported that there 15,302 residents in the greater Prince Rupert region, so the number of the departed is rather significant and indicative of the economic malaise that has enveloped the region since that head count.

Prince Rupert's declining numbers as well as those of Williams lake were among those with the highest population declines, a trend running counter to the rest of the province for the most part.

While much has been made of the boom times to come for the region, at the moment, if the numbers are to be held as true (and there's no reason to doubt the accounting) it would seem that the boom times are still a ways off.

The Census numbers in three categories all trend downward in the last five years, the tracking of the five year trend goes as follows.

Prince Rupert Census Subdivision

2006  12,815
2011  12,509

Decline of  306

The full report can be found here

Census Metropolitan (Census agglomeration)

2006 13,392
2011  13,052

Decline of 340

The full report can be found here

Prince Rupert Population Centre

2006  12,128
2011  11,838

Decline of 290

The full report can be found here

Other population shifts in the region included a slight increase for Terrace and Smithers and the prospect of Kitimat's population decline continuing on, so much so that the community is almost at the point where they become statistically irrelevant for future census counts.

Terrace 

2006 11,320 
2011 11,486

An increase of 1.5 %

Smithers

2006 5,217
2011 5,404

An increase of 3.6 %


Kitimat

2006  8,987
2011  8,335

A decline of 7.3%

Full reviews of other communities of the Northwest can be found by entering the community name in the dialogue box provide on the Statistics Canada website here.

National Post-- Census Canada 2011
Globe and Mail-- Census 2011
Vancouver Province-- 2011 Census
Vancouver Sun-- 2011 Census
CBC British Columbia-- B. C. Population outpaces national growth rate