It’s no secret Vancouver is growing, but just how many people can the region accommodate?
A report by Terry Hoff, Senior Regional Planner, Growth Management, for Metro Vancouver, outlines growth projections for the region.
The report, released January 11th, indicates the region’s population is anticipated to increase by one million by 2050.
RELATED: BC’S Population Surpasses 5 Million For The First Time In History
Metro Vancouver’s Population
Our personal bubbles may be on the brink of bursting.
An increase of people also means an increase of resources: housing, transportation, employment and schools.
Metro Vancouver’s net immigration is assumed to be in the 30,000 to 40,000 per year range, that’s on top of the additional one million people living here by the year 2050.
So, what’s up with the growth spurt?
Population growth is predicted by the addition or subtraction of births, deaths or net immigration in a single year.
The report notes immigration plays a key role in that population growth. There are 300,000 immigrants that arrive in Canada, every year. Metro Vancouver is home to about 11 per cent of that number.
Data trends conclude the City of Vancouver has been home to the region’s largest share of recent immigrants over the past 20 years.
Interestingly, that number is expected to decrease as more immigrants choose to settle in other areas of BC and Canada.
The City of Surrey alone, saw an increase in immigrants from 13 per cent to 22 per cent over that period.
Outside of immigrants, the report also shows that from 2011 to 2016, 40,000 Metro Vancouver residents changed municipalities.
Vancouver and Burnaby saw the biggest number of residents moving out, with 3,400 people per year 1,600 people per year, respectively, leaving the cities.
However, Surrey, Langley and Maple Ridge saw big population gains.
The report showed an average of 12,000 people per year moved from other parts of Canada to Metro Vancouver in the past 15 years and about 11,000 people per year moved out.
“The intra-provincial flow dynamics vary among municipalities and have a significant impact on growth for particular municipalities,” said the report.
Maybe this rendering of what Vancouver might look like by 2025 isn’t just a joke.
