Census says...
The first round of the 2011 Statistics Canada Census has been released (with more results potentially being released this morning, February 13)
Gabriola had a 0.1% population decrease between 2006 and 2011. Which for our population means five less people in 2011 than in 2006.
We’re now officially an island of 4045 people instead of 4050 in the eyes of the federal government and all statistics-based funding agencies.
Comparatively (even though we don’t always like being compared to the other gulf islands) Salt Spring went up 6.2% gaining 594 more people while Hornby dropped 10.8% losing 120 people. The national population rose 5.9% to 33,476,688. British Columbia was up 7%, totalling 4,400,057.
The total number of dwellings on Gabriola rose to 2,968 (from 2,744). The number of dwellings occupied by those who identified as ‘regular residents’ rose to 2,075 from 1,998. It’s too early to say we have fewer people per home than we did in 2006, even though the numbers would suggest that. Hopefully the next round of information gives us some better demographic information (despite the changes made by the Harper government to the long-form census)
Here’s the hot topic results: Gabriola’s population density dropped from 70.3 people per square kilometer to 70.1 ppl/km2
The BC population density is 4.8 ppl/km2
Interestingly enough, Gabriola’s census area grew in size by 32 acres. Perhaps they did the measurement at low tide this time.
The link to the 2011 Gabriola census results is on www.soundernews.com.