Skip to content

Burnaby grows by 10 per cent

If Burnaby seemed just a bit more crowded in the last five years, those suspicions were confirmed with Wednesday morning's release of Stats Canada's 2011 Census of Population.

If Burnaby seemed just a bit more crowded in the last five years, those suspicions were confirmed with Wednesday morning's release of Stats Canada's 2011 Census of Population.

Burnaby now has 223,218 residents, an increase of more than 20,000 residents, from the 202,799 people who lived in the city in 2006. The 10.1 per cent increase is substantially higher than the 4.4 per cent increase in Vancouver, but slightly less than the 12.7 per cent increase in neighbouring New Westminster.

The increased Burnaby numbers mirror the overall increase across the country, as Canada's overall population increased 5.9 per cent, from 31,612,897 in 2006 to 33,476,688 in 2011. Canada's population increased 5.4 per cent between 2001 and 2006.

According to the Stats Canada report, the increase in the growth rate was attributable to a slightly higher fertility rate and to an increase in the number of non-permanent residents and immigrants.

Canada's population increased at a faster rate than the population of any other member of the G8 group of industrialized nations between 2006 and 2011. This was also the case between 2001 and 2006.

Net international migration accounted for two-thirds of Canada's population growth during the last 10 years, with natural increase, or the difference between births and deaths, accounting for the other one-third increase.

Stats Canada also breaks down the numbers according to federal electoral districts. For the two Burnaby ridings, the percentage increase is roughly the same, as in Burnaby-Douglas, population increased from 112,119 to 123,275 in the last five years, an increase of 10 per cent.

In Burnaby-New Westminster, the numbers increased 11.1 per cent, from 118,713 to 131,917.

www.twitter.com/AlfieLau