The Tri-Cities squeezed another 2,647 people into its five ’burbs in 2018 which put its population growth right in the middle of the pack for municipalities in Greater Vancouver.
The five cities increased to a total of 251,020 from 2017 to 2018, according to recently released annual population estimates by BC Stats. That’s a boost of nearly 1.1% for the region.
Although Metro Vancouver’s overall population went up by 1.5% to 2,654,226, that average was bolstered big time by Surrey’s population growing by nearly 14,000 (2.7%) people alone. The median for all the regional district’s communities was 1.1% ranging from 0.5% to 1.8%, with the exception of UBC (2.4%) and Bowen Island (2.2%).
Like the area’s median, the population growth of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Anmore over the year was 1.1%. Coquitlam went from 147,809 in 2017 to 149,490 in 2018, PoCo’s 62,136 to 62,844 and Anmore 2,364 to 2,389. Port Moody rose from 35,385 to 35,613 (0.6%) while Belcarra’s increased by five to 684 (0.7%).
BC Stats estimated the province’s total population is pushing five million at 4,991,687 which is 1.4% more than 2017.
The organization makes its estimates based on the most recent census data, which in this case was 2016, combined with MSP registrations and BC Hydro hookups. The analysis does not take into account birthrate, deaths or migration.
ggranger@tricitynews.com
