Saskatoon is on the brink

Some people say thatsaskatoon is Calgary 20yrs ago. I am no sure but saskatoon is where Calgary of the 1970's so look a some numbers tell me what you think.

Population in Western cities booming
Name [6] 2006 [6] 2001 [7] 1996 [8] 1991 Census division
Calgary CMA 1,079,310 951,395 821,628 754,033 Division No. 6

Montreal below national average; Saguenay, Trois Rivières oldest cities, StatsCan says in demographic report
By SHANNON PROUDFOOT, Postmedia News July 21, 2011 Western Canada is home to an increasingly youthful and fast-growing population, while the eastern provinces are older and growing more slowly, according to new demographic analysis from Statistics Canada.

Saskatoon is Canada's fastest-growing city, with a population growth rate of 27.7 per 1,000 people between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010. That added 7,200 residents to the city, for a total population of 265,300, the agency said Wednesday.

Saskatoon is followed by Vancouver, growing at a rate of 22.3 per 1,000, and Regina, which also swelled by 22.3 per 1,000 over that same one-year period.

"There are some differences happening in the Western provinces compared to the Eastern provinces, and what's happening in Saskatchewan is quite interesting," says Anne Milan, a senior analyst with Statistics Canada's demography division and co-author of the report released Wednesday.

International migration was the driving force behind Saskatchewan's booming population, the agency says, with nearly half the population growth fuelled by that factor. Saskatoon alone gained 3,300 people through net international migration in that year, outstripping the international draw of larger cities such as Hamilton, Ont., and Quebec City.

Toronto was Canada's fourth fastest-growing city, followed by Calgary, Moncton, N.B., Edmonton, Ottawa-Gatineau and Winnipeg.

In contrast, cities including Halifax, Montreal, Kelowna, B.C., Victoria and St. John's had growth rates below the national average.

Only two cities - Windsor, Ont., and Sudbury, Ont., - registered population declines, losing residents to other Canadian cities.

"In some ways, it's the opposite story (in Eastern Canada), where there's generally lower fertility, they don't receive a large share of immigrants and net interprovincial migration is frequently negative," Milan says.

Amid an aging Canadian population, Saskatoon is also the youngest city in the country, with a median age of 35.4 years, compared to the national median of 39.7.

Many of Canada's other youngest cities are concentrated in the west, with Saskatoon followed by Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Toronto and Winnipeg. Those cities are also aging more slowly, fuelled by far more births than deaths and net gains in migration.

In contrast, Saguenay, Que., and Trois Rivières, Que., are the oldest cities in Canada, with median ages of 45.0 years, while Quebec City, St. John's, Kelowna, Victoria and St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont., are also older than average.

"Everything kind of interrelates," says Milan. "Population growth and the components of interprovincial migration and immigration and fertility - they all have an impact not only on population growth but the age structure."

There were 377,900 babies born in Canada in 2008, up from 354,600 in 2006 and the highest recorded number since 1995.

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