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Edmonton's Population

dunno said:
That makes a lot of sense. For what it's worth, as someone with the opposite experienced - living in Prairie cities my whole life (though not just in Edmonton), I've long thought about moves to the bigger Canadian centres. But as much as I enjoy Vancouver and Toronto for their vibrancy, urbanism, and amenities, it's just not worth it unless you luck out with a well paying job and decent rent/mortgage rates. And I also thought about Montreal, but the French thing is a real obstacle. So, you can live in Edmonton (or Calgary or Winnipeg even) and fly out to Vancouver or Toronto for vacation and actually afford to go out instead of being unable to afford anything because you're house poor. I am frustrated by how slow things feel like they're progressing sometimes here, and am disappointed with how things have gone in many instances, but there's some good policies (garden suites, infill prioritization, bike lane expansion, removal of parking minimums) that should have positive, long-term results. And having people like yourself from more urban-minded locales influencing what's desirable and acceptable here is also huge. Edmonton may not have Vancouver or Toronto's urbanism, but if enough Vancouverites and Torontonians get priced out and move here, hopefully some of those values rub off on this city. Unfortunately, it does seem like half the migrants from BC/Ontario aren't here to more affordably live an urban lifestyle, but to get something they could never get back home: a sizable house with a yard in the suburbs that doesn't cost a million dollars and has a short commute to boot.
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Admittedly we did buy a house, but in the inner city instead of the fringe suburbs, and I'm still baffled when I think about it. Coming from Vancouver I might've been able to buy a Condo for 600k (5+ years ago), but we came here and got a nice piece of land in a mature neighbourhood and a rundown old house for 215k. Downtown is only a 10m bike, 30m walk, the train station is nearby too. I could have never imagined owning even a condo in such a convenient location, but now I can have a whole chunk of land to ourselves with room to take on all sorts of new hobbies and grow my own forest and it's so easy and practical to get around, whether by car or by bike or by transit. I wish I could show more people that this sort of lifestyle is still totally practical here.

Like it's sort of a dream come true? I don't understand how this part of town (Alberta Ave and friends) isn't being overrun with people from Vancouver and Toronto - it's not like any of us could afford to rent in the "good" neighbourhoods back home anyways so the sketch factor is sort of moot to me.
 
JuliallThat said:
Admittedly we did buy a house, but in the inner city instead of the fringe suburbs, and I'm still baffled when I think about it. Coming from Vancouver I might've been able to buy a Condo for 600k (5+ years ago), but we came here and got a nice piece of land in a mature neighbourhood and a rundown old house for 215k. Downtown is only a 10m bike, 30m walk, the train station is nearby too. I could have never imagined owning even a condo in such a convenient location, but now I can have a whole chunk of land to ourselves with room to take on all sorts of new hobbies and grow my own forest and it's so easy and practical to get around, whether by car or by bike or by transit. I wish I could show more people that this sort of lifestyle is still totally practical here.

Like it's sort of a dream come true? I don't understand how this part of town (Alberta Ave and friends) isn't being overrun with people from Vancouver and Toronto - it's not like any of us could afford to rent in the "good" neighbourhoods back home anyways so the sketch factor is sort of moot to me.
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Yeah I saw your "location" and definitely wasn't thinking of you when I was making my comments. There's a difference between Parkdale and Summerside or Lewis Estates and the latter two seem to attract more people, not just from Vancouver or Toronto.
 
archited said:
I wouldn't refer to owning a house with some property surrounding "unfortunate" -- it is a lifestyle choice. We should be able to accommodate many different lifestyle choices without ranking them on a desirability scale. Downtown density will come because there are many who prefer condo or apartment living and Edmonton has an extremely bright future in that regard. The 15-minute city concept is desirable -- I lived that growing up in (of all places) Edmonton. I could and did walk just under 2 blocks to a movie theatre (Avenue); the grocery store (Co-op) was 3 blocks away, my Elementary school (Delton) was also 3 blocks away, the streetcar stop was also 3 blocks away that provided transportation downtown to the Bay, Eatons, Woodwards, Kresge's, Woolworths, and a plethora of eateries (the Waffle Shop was my favorite as a kid). I had a backyard skating rink in winter; we had a crab apple tree and raspberry canes on the property; I rode my bike everywhere (including to Junior High School -- Eastwood); there was a community park with swings, slides, etc. 2 blocks distant from our house; I had a network of friends throughout the neighborhood and we played together unsupervised in about a ten-block area. My point -- it was a damned good life-style and providing that as a goal again is a very positive thing.
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The problem right now downtown in particular, is so much retail (most of those names you mentioned) is now gone, so that 15 walk currently goes by many empty store fronts. Hopefully it will come back somewhat post COVID, I see signs of that starting.

There is still a nice mix of coffee places, restaurants and bars downtown, a few clothing and drug stores, a grocery store, but nothing for appliances or hardware,. There are big gaps.

I see the potential in areas like around Alberta Avenue, not just because of affordability, but it being a more central location and having older unique character houses - they aren't building those any more. I can understand many people moving here will be drawn to more suburban areas, but I can see also some coming to revitalize older or more central areas too.
 
Interesting to see where growth is occurring and why.

-Population increase across the province using growth rates since the last census reveal double digit growth across a number of small cities and towns in the province.
-Roughly 50% of the top 20 areas by growth are located within the greater region surrounding Alberta’s two largest cities, indicating the draw of these urban areas as magnets for regional employment, hybrid work, and affordable housing.
-4 of the top 5 growing areas are located within the Greater Calgary Region.

c808d244-ce8e-956e-a8e5-4315c4067f96

www.avisonyoung.ca

Small cities and towns in Alberta experience double digit population growth

Alberta small cities and towns experience double digit population growth, indicating the draw of these urban areas as magnets for regional employment, hybrid work, and affordable housing
www.avisonyoung.ca www.avisonyoung.ca
 
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IanO said:
Interesting to see where growth is occurring and why.

-Population increase across the province using growth rates since the last census reveal double digit growth across a number of small cities and towns in the province.
-Roughly 50% of the top 20 areas by growth are located within the greater region surrounding Alberta’s two largest cities, indicating the draw of these urban areas as magnets for regional employment, hybrid work, and affordable housing.
-4 of the top 5 growing areas are located within the Greater Calgary Region.


www.avisonyoung.ca

Small cities and towns in Alberta experience double digit population growth

Alberta small cities and towns experience double digit population growth, indicating the draw of these urban areas as magnets for regional employment, hybrid work, and affordable housing
www.avisonyoung.ca www.avisonyoung.ca
Click to expand...
Interesting, but the graph doesn't give the full picture. Percentage growth in a small town may look impressive, but the raw numbers may tell a completely different story. Seems they excluded CMAs, which would have provided more useful data in terms of where most people are moving. Also, Fort Macleod isn't in the Edmonton region.
 
Completely agree with @tkoe_ For example, perhaps the growth in the ex-urbs of Calgary may have more to do with housing prices within the City compared to housing prices within Edmonton's bounds. That might be why centres that are closer to Calgary rank higher than those farther away like Canmore for example. The graph is mostly meaningless without context.
 
I agree with the 2 posts above and it appears someone has cherry picked certain rural towns - all of which makes me think this chart has been crafted for political purposes by a dimwit.
 
I was thinking too that the differential between city and outlying community housing prices is probably one of the main things driving the current growth of the places around Calgary.

I don't doubt the data, but the interpretation of it is not so straightforward as the chart might suggest. Also, there is huge range in sizes of community sizes. Carstairs is a small town, Airdrie is a good size city.

Lastly, the history of development of the Edmonton area went differently, with places like St. Albert and Sherwood Park growing quickly decades ago, they are now more mature communities. Calgary's outlying communities barely existed then.
 
IanO said:
Interesting to see where growth is occurring and why.

-Population increase across the province using growth rates since the last census reveal double digit growth across a number of small cities and towns in the province.
-Roughly 50% of the top 20 areas by growth are located within the greater region surrounding Alberta’s two largest cities, indicating the draw of these urban areas as magnets for regional employment, hybrid work, and affordable housing.
-4 of the top 5 growing areas are located within the Greater Calgary Region.

c808d244-ce8e-956e-a8e5-4315c4067f96

www.avisonyoung.ca

Small cities and towns in Alberta experience double digit population growth

Alberta small cities and towns experience double digit population growth, indicating the draw of these urban areas as magnets for regional employment, hybrid work, and affordable housing
www.avisonyoung.ca www.avisonyoung.ca
Click to expand...
What the heck is going on in Smokey Lake?
 
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According to the City of Edmonton's 2022 Financial Report to Citizens, we're actually much closer to the 1.1 million mark than anything else.
 
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