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NWT population down Paul Bickford Northern News Services Published Monday, February 13, 2012
Following are the 2011 census population counts (along with the 2006 census population counts) for the NWT and its communities as released by Statistics Canada on Feb. 8. Municipalities are listed from highest to lowest population.
Source: Statistics Canada
According to the first numbers from the 2011 census released Feb. 8 by Statistics Canada, the population of the NWT fell by just two people - to 41,462 from 41,464.
"That by itself is not terribly unexpected," said Jeff Barichello, acting territorial statistician with the NWT Bureau of Statistics, which is a GNWT agency and not part of Statistics Canada.
Those two fewer people mean the NWT has the distinction of being the only province or territory with a population decline anywhere in Canada. Every province and the two other territories population grew. However, Barichello explained the census numbers are not the final word on the population of the NWT.
"You have to understand these are population counts and they're not the same as population estimates," he said.
Barichello noted the census only reveals the number of people who were enumerated during the census.
"So the purpose of the census is to try and count every single person in Canada, but inevitably there's going to be some people who weren't counted or who were counted twice," he said. "So what Statistics Canada does after each census is they do further studies to estimate how many people were missed or counted twice."
The survey results and the census counts form the basis of population estimates, and there is usually an adjustment upward from the census numbers.
"There's usually a net under-coverage," Barichello said. "That means that usually more people were not counted during the census than double counted. That adjustment factor has historically always been positive."
The final population numbers based on the post-census studies by Statistics Canada will be released in September of 2013.
Fort Smith Mayor Janie Hobart believes the census count of the NWT population is too low.
"I think that should be a major concern for the territorial government," she said, noting federal funding to the NWT is often based on population. "I think this should be putting up a red flag."
Hobart believes there were inaccuracies in the census counts in Fort Smith and other NWT communities.
One thing the census numbers indicate is Yellowknife is growing, while the populations of some smaller communities are decreasing. In Yellowknife, 19,234 people were counted in last year's census, compared to 18,700 in 2006.
"That is what the numbers are showing, but again these aren't population estimates," Barichello said, noting they just tell how many people were counted in a specific area, but do not tell anything about migration patterns.
It is too early to say if Yellowknife is growing at the expense of smaller NWT communities, he said. "There are other possibilities that haven't been ruled out yet."
Another interesting fact from the 2011 census is the 3.3-per-cent increase between 2006 and 2011 in the number of occupied private dwellings in the NWT. The number grew to 14,700 last year, compared to 14,224 five years earlier, even though the population count remained virtually the same. That means the average number of people per dwelling has decreased from 2006 to 2011, Barichello said, adding that could signal a general improvement in the problem of overcrowded housing.
"It's too early to tell that as well because this is just raw numbers," he said. "There could be something else influencing it."
Barichello noted a better picture on housing will emerge with future census releases.
The 2011 census counted 33,476,688 people in Canada.
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