NNSL (Feb 03/97) - The number of people moving into and out of the NWT continues to be the single most volatile factor affecting the North's population.

Since 1992, the number of people moving to or from the NWT has ranged from 6,015 in 1993 to 7,377 in 1995, Statistics Canada reports.

Last year 6,512 people moved into or out of the NWT over the first nine months.

And the gap between the number of people moving south, as opposed to those moving north, appears to be widening.

In the first nine months last year, 546 more people moved out of the NWT than moved in.

If the same rate of southern interprovincial migration occurred in the last three months of 1996, than 700 more people will have moved south than moved North, putting it at about the same loss as 1995.

The numbers for 1996 and 1995 are significantly higher than the provincial migration loss of 185 people in 1994, 119 in 1993 and 300 in 1992.

However, from the end of 1992 to the end of September 1996, the NWT's population has grown from 62,985 to 66,594.

The growth is due mainly to an average of between 1,500 and 1,600 births a year.