Immigration makes Saskatoon fastest growing Canadian city

Western Canada is quite different from eastern provinces in the sense that while the former is home to young and fast-growing population, latter’s population growth is quite slow, reveals the latest report from Statistics Canada depicting demographic trends.

Fastest population growth in Saskatoon-- According to a senior analyst of agency’s demography division, Anne Milan, things happening in Saskatchewan are quite interesting. The growth rate of population in Saskatoon between 1st July, 2009 and 30th June, 2010 happens to be 27.7 per 1,000 persons.

This resulted in addition of 7,200 to the population of the city(265,300), Statistics Canada adds. While Saskatoon leads the way in being the fastest growing city, Vancouver and Regina follow by having a growth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 each in the same time period.

Toronto came fourth while Calgary, Moncton, N B, Edmonton, Ottawa-Gatineau and Winnipeg followed in the list of fastest growing cities of Canada.

Immigration a major factor behind population growth of Saskatoon—Statistics Canada clearly maintains the role of immigration in the population growth of Saskatoon. As per the figures, almost fifty percent of the increase in population is due to immigration.

And this is due to the fact that this Canadian province is aware of the significance of immigration, states Linda West, an immigration advisor with Actyl Immigration, Regina. A total of 3,300 immigrants came to Saskatoon resulting in increasing the population. Rate of immigration in this city is greater than that of other Canadian cities including Ontario, Hamilton and Quebec.

High rates of immigration also increased population growth in other cities of Canada too. Immigration is also playing a leading role in driving the population growth not only in Saskatoon but also in Toronto. Consider for instance, population growth in Toronto which was mainly stimulated due to the immigrants hailing from South Asian nations.

It is being estimated that the population of Toronto is likely to increase three times by the year 2031. And the number of immigrants is going to touch the mark of 2.1 million out of which around 1.1 million are likely to be from China, Statistics Canada has projected.