[LINK] "Why Edmonton’s growth is outpacing Calgary's"
In an article jointly authored by the Calgary Herald's Jason Markusoff and the Edmonton Journal's Elise Stolte, the prospects of economic hub Calgary and political capital Edmonton are examined. Apparently the latter city is starting to grow slightly faster than the larger Calgary.
That smaller city to the north - you know, the one with the legislature and that megamall - is now growing at a faster clip than booming Calgary.
There are 877,926 Edmontonians, according to the city’s 2014 census released Friday. While that remains a far cry from Calgary’s nearly 1.2 million, the capital’s two-year growth rate of 7.4 per cent is greater than Stampede City’s 6.7 per cent.
While each city is being propelled by the energy boom, Edmonton is faring better in job creation than the city where the corporate headquarters are, said ATB Financial economist Todd Hirsch.
“It’s orders of magnitude. Both cities are kind of the envy of the nation,” he said Friday. “But Edmonton’s unemployment rate is just a touch lower, a lot of service jobs around the oilpatch.”
[. . .]
If Edmonton continues growing at this pace, it will top one million people in 2018 - a milestone Calgary surpassed in the 2007 population count.
If both Calgary and Edmonton each somehow keep growing at their respective rates - for argument’s sake, setting aside their boom-bust cycles and sheer urban capacity for the sake of argument - the capital would be on track to become Alberta’s largest city in 2110, when Edmonton becomes first to hit 27 million. Ottawa is the next largest city in Canada. The 2011 federal census found their population was 883,391, but the city’s internal estimates place their population at 944,900 in 2014.
That smaller city to the north - you know, the one with the legislature and that megamall - is now growing at a faster clip than booming Calgary.
There are 877,926 Edmontonians, according to the city’s 2014 census released Friday. While that remains a far cry from Calgary’s nearly 1.2 million, the capital’s two-year growth rate of 7.4 per cent is greater than Stampede City’s 6.7 per cent.
While each city is being propelled by the energy boom, Edmonton is faring better in job creation than the city where the corporate headquarters are, said ATB Financial economist Todd Hirsch.
“It’s orders of magnitude. Both cities are kind of the envy of the nation,” he said Friday. “But Edmonton’s unemployment rate is just a touch lower, a lot of service jobs around the oilpatch.”
[. . .]
If Edmonton continues growing at this pace, it will top one million people in 2018 - a milestone Calgary surpassed in the 2007 population count.
If both Calgary and Edmonton each somehow keep growing at their respective rates - for argument’s sake, setting aside their boom-bust cycles and sheer urban capacity for the sake of argument - the capital would be on track to become Alberta’s largest city in 2110, when Edmonton becomes first to hit 27 million. Ottawa is the next largest city in Canada. The 2011 federal census found their population was 883,391, but the city’s internal estimates place their population at 944,900 in 2014.