Quote:
Originally Posted by toaster
Looking forward to vid's reasoning for Thunder Bay's population decline, given I remember a few posts made noting Thunder Bay was significantly increasing population.
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Population stagnation. Lots of people have simply moved out to the surrounding municipalities. Those who have left the city or died have been replaced by native people from the far north, and immigrants.
Lack of responses could also be a bit of a factor, since the response rate was about 98% and the population only declined by 0.4%, in theory, the population could have gone up by a very small amount and it just wasn't caught. You could say that about many communities in the region.
Also, as has been pointed out in other discussions, the census typically doesn't include university students because it is conducted just as the school year is ending. Their presence gives the impression of more people in the city, when they're not permanently here.
The labour force survey has shown our population holding steady or growing very slightly and that's a little bit more accurate than the census. The purpose of the census isn't so much to get population numbers (although they are fun to look at and act as a bit of a benchmark), but rather to get more detailed information about demographics across the entire country at the same time so that comparisons can be made and policies can be implemented based on more information.
Also all the claims that the city has been growing based simply on what seems to be happening around us could all be an illusion. 52,545 of the CMA's 57,146 dwellings (91.9%) are occupied, compared to 52,062 of 56,071 (92.8%) in 2011. We have more empty houses in the CMA now.
We built 1,075 dwellings to accommodate 25 people, over 5 years.
Also, the ring of fire was supposed to bring tens of thousands by now. lol