Canada’s Growing-So Is The Saskatoon Real Estate Market!

According to the 2011 Census data, Canada is growing faster than any other G8 Nation. This is mainly fuelled by immigration and the booming western provinces are reshaping Canada’s demographics.

Canada’s open-arms/open-doors approach to immigration is what is driving our population upwards as this ha become twice as important as the natural increase of life vs death. Our new population is 33.5 million people which is up from 31.6 million at the last census in 2006. While we are still the lowest population in the G8 nations we are the fastest growing population with a 5.9% increase in the past 5 years, up from our previous increase of 5.4% the 5 years before that. We beat the US growth rate of 4.4%.

While Alberta still leads all provinces in population growth (10.8% since the last census) it is all the Western provinces that are leading the way. For the first time in history we have more people living West of Ontario than East. It is marginal (0.1%) but it is still there. Helping this is the growth of Calgary and Edmonton as they outpaced the 31 cities with huge increases of 12% over the past 5 years.

Let’s not forget about Saskatchewan! In the 1986 census we had just over 1 million residents and then a long period of decline. We have now reached 1,033,381. We have an above-average growth rate of 6.7%. Since 2006 the population in both Regina and Saskatoon have seen an increase of 10%. As a Saskatoon REALTOR® this is of no surprise to me as I have seen an increasing number of people immigrating here and buying houses for sale in Saskatoon.

BC also saw an increase with the province’s total now at 4.4 million, up 7%. Kelowna was another of the country’s fastest growing cities after Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon.

Ontario, depsite the recession issues impatcing the manufacturing sector, still increased its population to 12.9 million but Windsor and Thunder Bay saw population decreases which was rare across Canada. Quebec has almost 8 million people and accelerated its growth rate from 4.3% in the 2006 Census to 4.7% in the last one.

It seems odd but Newfoundland and Labrador hadn’t noted a population increase since 1986 but finally got its numbers up to more than 250,000 people, largely due to petroleum. Even Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI saw their populations grow and Manitoba and the Yukon also saw significant jumps because of an influx of immigrants.

Overall, approximately 1/3 of all Canadians (35%) live in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver as all grew substantially since 2006. Again the drive was the arrival of tens of thousands of immigrants.

While Canada’ needs immigration there are almost major challenges in integrating and accommodating immigrant communities, but overall I think Canadians are still quite supportive of immigration and the promise of economic renewal and multicultural evolution.

In Saskatoon we definitely have a larger Indo-Pakistani community than ever before as well as a larger number of immigrants coming from Muslim nations. I see this daily when I drive around Saskatoon, whether it is just hearing more different languages or with new shops to cater to different food choices. This all helps drive our province to be what it is…booming!

If you are looking to buy a house for sale in Saskatoon and you are a newcomer to our country please speak to me about potential mortgage brokers in Saskatoon who can help new to Canada buyers.

Kari Calder
Saskatoon Real Estate Agent
Century 21 Fusion
kari@saskatoonrealestate.net