Rural Canada’s population is growing, despite a general assumption that the vast tracts of land between big cities are emptying out as people head to the bright lights.
In 2006, the number of Canadians considered rural was 6.3 million, three percent higher than in 2001, according to a rural demographics report published last week by Statistics Canada.
Many of those new rural residents are acreage owners or town residents who move out of Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto but work, spend and play mainly in the nearby city.
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“The overall picture at the Canadian level is that the rural population is growing,” said the report.
“Most but not all of this growth is taking place in areas adjacent to larger urban centres.”
However, rural population growth has not kept pace with city growth, which has been fueled by immigrants. Even with the increased population, the rural share of the Canadian population actually hit an historic low level of 19 percent in 2006, barely half of what it was 35 years ago.
“As a result, the rural share of Canada’s total population continues to decline.”
These are some of the findings by Statistics Canada analysts Ray Bollman and Heather Clemenson, who based their report on the 2006 census.
“In plain words, the results show that the size of the rural population has remained stable over the last 25 years, although with a modest positive growth,” they wrote.
“However, due to a rapid urban population growth, the weight of the rural population in the national demographic picture has declined steadily.”
The rural population decline is most pronounced in Saskatchewan, the only province where the percentage of rural population has declined in every five-year period since 1951.
It still is the most rural province outside Atlantic Canada and the northern territories, but the rural portion of the population has been in steady decline. It first dipped below a majority in 1971 and is now nudging 40 percent.
“There are many areas where the number of deaths exceed the number of births,” Bollman said.
In other areas, out-migration exceeds in-migration.
Bollman said rural population has been falling in Saskatchewan while rising in Manitoba and Alberta partly because Saskatchewan has few large cities. These attract urbanites to move to surrounding areas, where they have a country lifestyle while commuting to city jobs.
“The census rural population of Saskatchewan has continually declined over the last six decades,” the report said. “Only Alberta and Manitoba have shown a consistent growth in their census rural populations.”
Quebec and Ontario account for almost half of the Canadians classified as rural, many of them within the shadow of large cities.
However, those provinces also boast industries in small towns that keep rural residents employed at local companies and living in rural areas.
Canada moved from a majority-rural to a majority-urban country in the 1921 census.
Ontario and British Columbia are Canada’s most urbanized provinces.
Outside the northern rural territories, the most rural provinces are Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. Saskatchewan is next and Manitoba and Alberta are down the list.
