The first release of the 2016 census results came out Wednesday detailing the number of people living in the country as well as the number of private dwellings.
Since 2011 the population of Canada has grown 5 per cent to just over 35 million.
Campbell River’s growth rate in the same amount of time is below that at 4.5 per cent. In 2011 census results indicated that 31,186 people lived in Campbell River and last year 32,588.
This means we have a concentration of people living in the city of 225 people per square kilometre, which is much lower than in Courtenay where there are 789 people per square kilometre and Comox where there are 789 people per square kilometre.
At the moment there are 14,810 private dwellings in the city and 14,201 are occupied by permanent residents.
In the Strathcona Regional District Statistics Canada reported a population of 44,671, up from the 2011 population of 43,252. That is a 3.3 per cent population increase.
In the SRD there are 21,681 private dwellings with a concentration of 2.4 people per square kilometre.
In the Comox Valley Regional District they have seen a population increase of 4.7 per cent, up from 63,538 in 2011 to 66, 527 in 2016.
No word yet explaining the population growth. The next release from Statistics Canada reporting on the census information will be on May 3. At that time they are scheduled to release age and gender demographics as well as information on types of dwellings.
On the Island Langford’s population increased by 20.9 per cent, the most of any urban centre. Sooke was second increasing by 13.7 per cent.