While Canada as a country has grown beyond 35 million people in the newly released 2016 Census Data, a few regions of the country have shrunk in population, with few getting hit as hard as the town of Bonnyville.
The town now has 12.9% fewer people than it did in 2011, by far the largest decrease of any municipality with over 5,000 people anywhere in Canada. While the town was 6,216 strong during the last census when oil was still booming, it now barely qualifies for Stats Canada’s decrease list at 5,417. That’s 799 fewer people calling Bonnyville home. Nearby Kehewin shrunk significantly as well, with a drop of 8.4 percent.
However, it might be that at least a few of these people just moved into the MD, which saw a 21% surge in population over the five years. Everywhere else in the Lakeland seems to have grown as well. Cold Lake is up 8.1%, St. Paul is up 7.8% while the surrounding County is up 3.6. Tiny Glendon and Elk Point are a little bigger too, by 1.4 and 2.8 percent respectively. Saddle Lake stayed exactly where it was with no change in either direction while White Fish Lake jumped ten percent.
The only area outside of Bonnyville and Kehewin and a few Summer Villages to lose population was the County of Lac La Biche. That was only a modest 0.9% decrease though.