Population growth slows but Airdrie remains a popular choice

Posted by on Monday, October 24th, 2016 at 2:44pm.

After an explosion in the number of people pouring into Airdrie over the last decade, population growth has significantly slowed down giving the municipality a chance to catch its breath.

The population growth was actually the lowest its been in the past five years in 2015 and 2016 numbers indicate that growth remains slow but hasn’t fallen short of last year’s numbers. Calgarians remains the number one source of new residents to Airdrie and continue to purchase homes in many of Airdrie's popular new communities. 

According to the City’s latest census, the population of Airdrie stands at 61,842, a rise of 5.37% over last year.  That may sound quite good, but in 2014 the City grew by 11%.  In the past two years, the number of new migrants has fallen by half.

Airdrie compared to other Alberta towns

In examining similar-sized municipalities, St. Albert just outside of Edmonton has grown by 1.1% to 54,645 people.  Other Edmonton satellite communities experienced moderate growth, too. Spruce Grove with 33,640 people increased by 5% and Leduc was up 4% to 30,498 people.  Further outside Edmonton is Grande Prairie which was up 5.6% to a total population of 68,556.

Calgary has nearly 1.6 million people now and has increased its population by 2.3%.  Even with our economy in the tank, the net population of our province grew 1.8% as of July 1, 2016 which is actually higher than Canada’s growth rate of 1.2%.

Airdrie’s mayor, Peter Brown, told local media that people continue to be drawn to the City because of it’s affordability and sense of community along with a wonderful location.  It remains a desirable community in which to purchase a new home even throughout Alberta’s downturn.

Where new citizens are coming from

The people in almost 6% of Airdrie’s 23,027 households are from “away” and have lived in the City less than two years.  Half of people who moved to Airdrie in the last year came from Calgary and 24% relocated from within the province to Airdrie.  The balance came from outside Alberta and some from other countries.

Airdrie remains a young city

Approximately 35% of the population is in the 25 to 44 demographic with the average age being 33.  Young children aged 10 and under account for one-sixth of the population at 10,752 individuals. The least represented demographic in Airdrie are seniors between the ages of 70 to 74 with only 932 people of that age residing in the City. There are 1,300 older residents over the age of 75 living in Airdrie.

Brown says the community is youthful, vibrant and well-educated.  These three factors help to attract business to the city which is already known as an incubator for new entrepreneurs.

The mayor called the census a “critical document” because the results are used by the City of Airdrie to help determine future infrastructure needs and provide direction for building roads, recreation services and utilities.

 

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