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Calgary 2019 Civic Census

Predicted population change?

  • >20,000+

    Votes: 12 37.5%
  • +15,000-20,000

    Votes: 13 40.6%
  • +10,000-15,000

    Votes: 7 21.9%
  • +5,000-10,000

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • +0-5,000

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Negative population change

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    32
Overall the number are good, but I agfee with others, that the stagnant numbers for the 20-24 age bracket is concerning. I know some of it is because many leave the city to go to other schools and then come back, but still.
 
The reason for the approvals was the city not getting off their butts and coming up with a plan to generate more inner city development. I know they have the main streets initiative and they've done some increased zoning, and there's been lots of talk, but they haven't really gotten serious about it. My sister and brother in law just bought a place out in the burbs, even though they prefer the inner city. Having two kids, it was just easier to buy where they did. If they could get the same sized place somewhere inner city for around or even close to the same price, they'd move in a heartbeat.

I don't think it's realistic to expect that the inner-city will ever provide similar-sized housing as the suburbs for similar prices. There is always going to be a trade off between centrality and size. That said, your sister's household is an outlier in this city:

Calgary's Households by Size (2016 Canadian Census):
1 person - 24%
2 people - 32%
3 people - 17%
4 people - 16%
5 people - 10%

A full three quarters of Calgary's households are three people or smaller and could be comfortably housed in smaller 2-3 bedroom units within the inner-city. Yet, almost 60% of our current housing stock are detached single-family homes. We can and should accommodate larger families, but we need to bring family sizes and housing stock into closer balance.

Calgary's Occupied Private Dwellings by Structure Type (2016 Canadian Census)
Single-detached house - 56%
Apartment in a building that has five or more storeys - 7%
Semi-detached house - 6%
Row house - 10%
Apartment or flat in a duplex - 5%
Apartment in a building that has fewer than five storeys - 16%
Other single-attached house - 0.04%
Movable dwelling - 0.4%
 
Here is some data that supports what you are saying. The city grew by 53% in that same period. Notably on this list (and compared to the city centre hoods I last one I posted), Windsor Park, Haysboro, Brentwood all grew by about the same amount as Mission/CB did, at a higher rate of growth. Windsor Park grew about as fast as Sunnyside/Hillhurst over the period.

20 Year Pop Change 1999 - 2019, (Number, Percent Change)
kingsland (+327, 7%)
windsor park (+870, 23%)
glendale (-97, -3%)
glenbrook (+393, 6%)
rutland park (-117,-5%)
rosscarrock (+263, 8%)
westgate (-220, -6%)
brentwood (+815, 13%)
charleswood /collingwood (-208, -3%)
varsity (+326, 3%)
vista heights (-17, -1%)
haysboro (+995, 16%)
university heights (+71, 2%)
banff trail (+699, 20%)
dalhousie (-424, -5%)
highwood (+117, 5%)
highland park (+89, 2%)
Hey CB, thanks for running this, super interesting. I was looking at the 5 yr trend when making the comment but the 20yr trend makes things more apparent. What is t
 
Interesting that 56% of the households in the city are made up of either 1 or 2 people. I would have thought the number of households with 3 or 4 people would be higher given the amount of SFH's in the city.

I don't think it's realistic to expect that the inner-city will ever provide similar-sized housing as the suburbs for similar prices. There is always going to be a trade off between centrality and size. That said, your sister's household is an outlier in this city:

Calgary's Households by Size (2016 Canadian Census):
1 person - 24%
2 people - 32%
3 people - 17%
4 people - 16%
5 people - 10%

A full three quarters of Calgary's households are three people or smaller and could be comfortably housed in smaller 2-3 bedroom units within the inner-city. Yet, almost 60% of our current housing stock are detached single-family homes. We can and should accommodate larger families, but we need to bring family sizes and housing stock into closer balance.

Calgary's Occupied Private Dwellings by Structure Type (2016 Canadian Census)
Single-detached house - 56%
Apartment in a building that has five or more storeys - 7%
Semi-detached house - 6%
Row house - 10%
Apartment or flat in a duplex - 5%
Apartment in a building that has fewer than five storeys - 16%
Other single-attached house - 0.04%
Movable dwelling - 0.4%
 
Interesting that 56% of the households in the city are made up of either 1 or 2 people. I would have thought the number of households with 3 or 4 people would be higher given the amount of SFH's in the city.

The way politicians talk, you'd think the average Canadian is a parent of 2-3 kids. Every time someone suggests limiting SFHs or car-dependency, they always whine about all the families who have to truck hockey equipment around for three kids. HOWEVER... the national birth rate is 1.6! Lots of families will never hit 4 people. Even for those who do, the period of their lives when all their kids will actually be living under the same roof is only 15-25 years. We could very easily accommodate everyone who wanted to have a large family while still building cities where small-scale housing and walkability are the norm for the vast majority of households that are 3 people or smaller.

All of the baby boomers who refuse to give up their 1970s/80s/90s suburban SFHs are going to be in big trouble when they're no longer physically or mentally fit to drive (or we will be in trouble if they refuse to stop driving). In fact, not only do they refuse to give up their monster homes, they also oppose every non-SFH proposed for their neighborhoods.
 
No kidding, that is an interesting comparison. I mean i knew there are a lot of houses in the burbs with 1 or 2 people in them but to see the roll up is crazy. It makes me think we could conceivably have european style housing stock and people wouldn't really be making huge sacrifices. It's just that people have so much house now that it has permeated our collective understanding as normal, crazy. And, of course it comes down to the boomers, ahaha, man I love them but jeeze there have certainly been better generations. If the cultural norm shifted to be more accepting of 2 and 3 bed apts and townhomes for smaller families and people more actively downsizing when the time is right cities in north america would look a lot different.
 
Interesting. Statscan estimates for 2019, show Calgary at 1,486,050. Some say the estimates are actually more accurate than the actual census data, but not sure if that's true or not. What's interesting though is to see such a difference between the tally of municipal census numbers and the statscan numbers.
 
Thanks for sharing that estimate. That's even closer to 1.5 million :)If you factor in the numbers that I couldn't find updates for and some of the smaller communities not listed in the table in Wikipedia, I could see the total being a bit higher. Also, at least for the city of Calgary, the census number are almost 5 -6 months old now. We could easily have another 5,000 extra people in the city by now.
 
Interesting. Statscan estimates for 2019, show Calgary at 1,486,050. Some say the estimates are actually more accurate than the actual census data, but not sure if that's true or not. What's interesting though is to see such a difference between the tally of municipal census numbers and the statscan numbers.

Either way, when you include Foothills MD (which will be included in Calgary's CMA sometime in the near future) it would add another 72K + putting it well over 1.5M

FootHills MD22,7662016
Okotoks29,0022018
High River14,0522019
Black Diamond2,7002016
Turner Valley2,5592016
Longview3072016
Eden Valley5962016
Total71,982
 
Thanks for sharing that estimate. That's even closer to 1.5 million :)If you factor in the numbers that I couldn't find updates for and some of the smaller communities not listed in the table in Wikipedia, I could see the total being a bit higher. Also, at least for the city of Calgary, the census number are almost 5 -6 months old now. We could easily have another 5,000 extra people in the city by now.
Easily 5,000 and possible closer to 10K. Won't be long before the *true* CMA population is over 1.6M.
 
Thanks for sharing that estimate. That's even closer to 1.5 million :)If you factor in the numbers that I couldn't find updates for and some of the smaller communities not listed in the table in Wikipedia, I could see the total being a bit higher. Also, at least for the city of Calgary, the census number are almost 5 -6 months old now. We could easily have another 5,000 extra people in the city by now.
For sure. The statscan estimates come out every July, so I guess that would add another 5K since our census, and then as you mentioned some of the other communities are out of date. I could see the number getting close to the estimate of 1.486M. I've heard many say federal numbers are usually more accurate than the local census, and could also be part of the difference.
 
For sure. The statscan estimates come out every July, so I guess that would add another 5K since our census, and then as you mentioned some of the other communities are out of date. I could see the number getting close to the estimate of 1.486M. I've heard many say federal numbers are usually more accurate than the local census, and could also be part of the difference.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but I can't help but wonder how an estimate is more accurate than a census?

I never thought I'd see Calgary hit 2 Million, but they way it's growing, it could happen.
 
Interesting. Statscan estimates for 2019, show Calgary at 1,486,050. Some say the estimates are actually more accurate than the actual census data, but not sure if that's true or not.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but I can't help but wonder how an estimate is more accurate than a census?
It's true, the estimates are more accurate than the census data, especially the municipal census data. The municipal census does a pretty good job, but it's a best effort situation, they can't force people to respond to the census, so they only get to count those who respond and then factor in a margin of error of some kind.

The estimates on the other hand aren't really estimates, they use data from government departments, combined with a number of formulas.
- International migration numbers come via CIC (Citizenship and Immigration)
- Natural increase comes from birth and death certificates data
- Interprovincial/intraprovincial migration data comes from CRA

With those three areas covered, the government gets a pretty accurate estimate.
 
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Interesting. Statscan estimates for 2019, show Calgary at 1,486,050. Some say the estimates are actually more accurate than the actual census data, but not sure if that's true or not. What's interesting though is to see such a difference between the tally of municipal census numbers and the statscan numbers.

Those numbers are for 2018, not 2019. The 2019 numbers won't be released til March.


For sure. The statscan estimates come out every July, so I guess that would add another 5K since our census, and then as you mentioned some of the other communities are out of date. I could see the number getting close to the estimate of 1.486M. I've heard many say federal numbers are usually more accurate than the local census, and could also be part of the difference.

The base date for every year is July 1, but they are released the following March of each year. So the 2018 numbers were released, as stated in the report you linked, on March 28,, 2019, and the 2019 numbers won't be released til March 2020. We are definitely already over the 1.5 million mark, and including our true metro area, we're very close to 1.6.
 
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