The results are in for the 2010 Civic Census and they show Calgary has had a significant slowdown in its population growth.
"At some point it's nice to have a little bit of a breather and even this year we are still seeing a 6,000 person growth and that's very healthy," says Mayor Dave Bronconnier.
There were 6,060 more residents in the city compared to last year. That adds up to a 0.57 percent population growth which is the smallest growth since 1984 when the overall population actually decreased.
Calgary's population is now 1,071,515.
And for the first time since 1992 more people moved away from Calgary than moved to Calgary. "The reason why you're seeing a migration of about 4,000 people over the past year has to do with major infrastructure works. Those projects wrap up and construction workers are pretty migratory group – they move where the jobs are," says Bronconnier.
The migration could impact next year's property tax rate because there will be fewer people than the city projected. "We have an opportunity every year to review the budget. So that is an opportunity for council to say ‘okay, so what's changed since we set this number. Population has gone down a little bit in terms of growth and our revenues are down,' so that means they'll probably have to reflect on that number," says Owen Tobert, the city manager.
The census also looked at housing and the numbers are good news for renters. The vacancy rate is 3.93 percent which is up from 3.08 percent last year.
Another interesting figure coming out of the census is the number of owner-occupied dwellings. It now sits at 70.65 percent which is a slight decrease from last year's percentage which was 71.14 percent.
For a complete look at the Civic Census results, click on the census link to the right.
