Edmonton's Population

[Kosy123]

Thank you for sharing this! I'm noting population counts that seem lower than I expect by neighbourhood. Are my perceptions off or is this an undercount?

I had the same observation for the core neighbourhoods. One explanation I can think of is 2020-2021 was full of online classes and as a result, there were less students being recorded resulting in what could seem "undercounting" by our standards now.

 

[BrettB]

The data are also at what is basically the community league level, so the boundaries might affect the numbers but they are the 'official' count and I know StatsCan does everything it can to capture every resident.

 

[EdmTrekker]

Bingo.

Calgary has a severe housing shortage issue paired with an attractive alternative to Toronto/Van and as a result a disproportionate amount of new arrivals and investment dollars.

Yesterday I was speaking with a developer who has had their busiest first week of the year in their history (who buys condos in the first week of Jan?). In 2023 they had 3x the number of transactions compared to a 10yr average.

Here's hoping some of that spills over to Edmonton, but Edmonton has more supply, less demand and fewer investors which positions it differently.

This is not pro-Calgary talk, simply the realty of what's happening.

Why is it you constantly dump your ramblings about Calgary versus Edmonton on Skyrise? It’s really annoying. Don’t you have a blog you can babble on without constantly eating up space here for your ramblings?

 

[IanO]

Perspective, comparison to the sister city, analysis, investigation and to ensure that those who seem to not want to take off the blinders share comments such as that.

It's important to see what's happening across Canada and use it to inspire, create competition and maybe even a desire to do more.

 

[JaayJR]

I agree with Ian. I'm fairly anti Calgary even tho I'm from there. It's important to see what's happening in both of Albertas major cities because the trends are directly related to each other.
Personally, Edmonton is North America's anomaly city and understanding the cities migration inflows and how people prefer to live both here and in Calgary can help understand where things can be highlighted or improved for MetroEd.

To me, the cities are fairly similar at face, but the regions are very different. Edmonton receives similar population inflows when Calgary visually looks 'better'. This says something about Edmonton and it can't just be affordability.
The spillover is definitely happening here too, it's been apparently a busy week here also.

 

[David A]

I agree with Ian. I'm fairly anti Calgary even tho I'm from there. It's important to see what's happening in both of Albertas major cities because the trends are directly related to each other.
Personally, Edmonton is North America's anomaly city and understanding the cities migration inflows and how people prefer to live both here and in Calgary can help understand where things can be highlighted or improved for MetroEd.

To me, the cities are fairly similar at face, but the regions are very different. Edmonton receives similar population inflows when Calgary visually looks 'better'. This says something about Edmonton and it can't just be affordability.
The spillover is definitely happening here too, it's been apparently a busy week here also.

Its really quite simple, so I don't know why we have to go on and on and on about it. Calgary has a lot of head offices and a better off more white collar work force.

Attracting that sort of thing has never been much of a priority for Edmonton, but it has its benefits. You can't be content to be a branch plant city and have a nice impressive downtown.

 

[JaayJR]

Its really quite simple, so I don't know why we have to go on and on and on about it. Calgary has a lot of head offices and a better off more white collar work force.

Attracting that sort of thing has never been much of a priority for Edmonton, but it has its benefits. You can't be content to be a branch plant city and have a nice impressive downtown.

Yep but this also just states the obvious.
Edmonton isn't a downtown city to me, it's a region, that's why I love it.
WEM takes so much dollars away from the rest of the city, where this may not be as much of an issue in a different city. WEM, a mall, is our main attraction. Im not sure how or if that will change. Anomaly.
Downtown is on its way and the current initiatives will help change the perception as the projects complete, but downtown is very underpopulated as a whole. But will agree that a fancy impressive downtown isn't the priority here, however I do believe the 'build it and they will come'
District planning imo, is a step towards something that could be different and potentially big for Edmonton. Embracing both our core but also the many pockets around the city. It makes me think of mid-cities in central Asia like Almaty or Tashkent. This could even be expanded across the region to highlight a lot of the rec areas we have within proximity to the city.
Of course planning being one thing, demand is another, investment is another. But it also goes back to how people prefer to live here.
Growing up south, we are brought up to hate Edmonton and that it sucks, nothing to do and there's only WEM (I'm not joking). Yet most people I met here like Calgary, but would rather live in Edmonton. This says something more, we should be asking why, and highlighting that.

 

[David A]

I get that we often compare ourselves to the closest nearby city of similar size, but I do feel that can easily become an exercise in frustration, like kid comparing themself to their siblings. People and places are different for underlying reasons and may remain so. The mall here is a factor too, but it is probably not going away either, so we have to live with it.

Having said all that, there is a lot that can be done to improve downtown and make it more of a priority. I do sometimes question, despite the platitudes, whether the political will exists here to do this.

 

[Munanyo]

I think there will always be a fine line in comparing Edmonton's downtown vs. others. It's important to see what's working elsewhere and what are lessons we can take from elsewhere and apply them here. But also touting how much better everyone else's downtowns are compared to ours doesn't help and can easily lead to a giant circle jerk bashing fest.

It's natural to compare our downtown with our sister city to the south. I think Calgary is very much ahead of the game compared to us but it's not perfect and it's important to acknowledge that. We don't want a copy cat downtown because at the end of the day Edmonton is it's own city and we want to be unique and different (in a positive way). But let's not kid ourselves that Calgary has a more impressive and lively downtown right now. Again, this doesn't mean that Calgary is a "better" or "more fun" city then Edmonton, just that in reference to downtown specifically, most would agree Calgary has an edge compared to us and we should strive to match and exceed what's going on there.

 

[Garneau2Go]

Edmonton and it's lacking downtown and infrastructure has been a talking point since forever. Even an article from 1985 points it out:

"Edmonton, Edmonton. The capital of Alberta is a city you come from, not a place to visit, unless you happen to have relatives there or an interest in an oil well nearby. On first glance, and even on third, it seems not so much a city as a jumble of a used-building lot, where the spare office towers and box-shaped apartment buildings and cinder-block motels discarded in the construction of real cities have been abandoned to waste away in the cruel prairie winter.

If Canada were not a country, however fragmented, but, instead, a house, Vancouver would be the solarium-cum-playroom, an afterthought of affluence; Toronto, the counting room, where money makes for the most glee; Montreal, the salon; and Edmonton, Edmonton the boiler room. There is hardly a tree to be seen downtown, nothing to delight the eye on Jasper Avenue"

It's going to take a lot to change perception and reality of Edmonton vs the rest of Canada here, but I'd rather people try to improve the place and fail, than never try at all.

 

[Gronk!]

Personally I'd rather go back to discussing Edmonton's population in this thread instead of yet another "woe is downtown Edmonton" debate that's been done innumerable times.

 

[Glenco]

Edmonton and it's lacking downtown and infrastructure has been a talking point since forever. Even an article from 1985 points it out:

"Edmonton, Edmonton. The capital of Alberta is a city you come from, not a place to visit, unless you happen to have relatives there or an interest in an oil well nearby. On first glance, and even on third, it seems not so much a city as a jumble of a used-building lot, where the spare office towers and box-shaped apartment buildings and cinder-block motels discarded in the construction of real cities have been abandoned to waste away in the cruel prairie winter.

If Canada were not a country, however fragmented, but, instead, a house, Vancouver would be the solarium-cum-playroom, an afterthought of affluence; Toronto, the counting room, where money makes for the most glee; Montreal, the salon; and Edmonton, Edmonton the boiler room. There is hardly a tree to be seen downtown, nothing to delight the eye on Jasper Avenue"

It's going to take a lot to change perception and reality of Edmonton vs the rest of Canada here, but I'd rather people try to improve the place and fail, than never try at all.

I think the name “Boiler Room” would be a great name for the new park. These comments by Mordecai Richler inspired the ci to plant trees downtown. That was the least they could do so that’s what they did.

 

[David A]

Personally I'd rather go back to discussing Edmonton's population in this thread instead of yet another "woe is downtown Edmonton" debate that's been done innumerable times.

Richler's criticism in 1985 was harsh, but probably fair back then. Of course, he has been dead for over two decades now and our downtown has changed a lot since then.

We may have further to go, but I feel it has improved a lot. By the way, and back to the topic, Edmonton's metro population back then was around 750,000, so has almost doubled since.

So maybe it is time to put Richler's criticism in the history section and quit trotting him out as a critic of the current situation.

 

[occidentalcapital]

If anything, population growth lately tells a very different story (a good news story). Many of us talk to friends/family, a simple first step is to just let them know about how fast Edmonton is growing. When they ask "why?", there's your opportunity to explain that things are actually going pretty well here and start to change that false narrative of decline.

 

[David A]

If anything, population growth lately tells a very different story (a good news story). Many of us talk to friends/family, a simple first step is to just let them know about how fast Edmonton is growing. When they ask "why?", there's your opportunity to explain that things are actually going pretty well here and start to change that false narrative of decline.

It does, as the saying goes people vote with their feet. This despite some of the negativity about Edmonton in media centered elsewhere.