What's Booth Up To Now?

Calgary added its one millionth citizen last night, born just after midnight, so today is a special day – the day that Calgary officially joins the 1 Million Club.  Now we’re just waiting on Edmonton, which seems to be consistently adding 50,000 people every 5 years.  If this keeps up, it means they should be joining the million-plus ranks in the next 30 years.  But if their growth rates slows, then it could take longer.  By comparison, Calgary grew by over 35,000 in one year alone.    Their mayor says they’re effectively adding about 100 people each day, which is rather mind-boggling.

Calgary’s growth rate over the past 15 years has even given Toronto a run for its money adding 68,000 people between 1990 & 1995, 110,000 between 1995 & 2000, and 107,000 between 2000 & 2005.  Toronto has been growing by 105,000 between 1990 & 1995, 95,000 between 1995 & 2000, and 95,000 again between 2000 & 2005.  Keep in mind that I’m only talking about the cities themselves, not their metro areas.  Calgary and Edmonton both have over 1 million people in their metro areas already. 

So, we welcome Calgary to the club!  Now Canada officially has 3 cities of 1 million or more: Toronto, Montreal and Calgary, in that order.  Canada’s 1 million-plus metropolitan list will keep growing too, and as it stands we have 6 on that list: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton, in that order.  All 6 metro areas combined hold almost 14 million people, and are growing very, very quickly.