Winnipeg metropolitan population growth slows during pandemic: Statistics Canada

Downtown Winnipeg. (Source: CTV News/Mason DePatie)

WINNIPEG — New numbers from Statistics Canada show Winnipeg's population growth has slowed since the pandemic started, but one expert says this trend isn't specific to the city.

For 2021, Winnipeg's census metropolitan area population was 852,778, which is just up slightly from 851,211 in 2020.

This amounts to just 1,567 more people living in the area from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2021.

Lori Wilkinson, who is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Manitoba, said several major cities including Winnipeg have been struggling with population growth during the pandemic and even before COVID-19 hit.

"There's actually four components to population growth. There's births, there's deaths, migration into the country and migration out of the country," said Wilkinson.

"As a nation we're getting older and we're having less babies."

Wilkinson said in 2019, Canada had the lowest growth rate on record.

"So if we look at Winnipeg in particular, its age structure, we are a little bit older than other metropolitan areas. So our average age is 38.6 years."

Wilkinson highlights that while growth has slowed in the Winnipeg area, even before the pandemic, with just over 35,000 people since 2017, it has been growing at a steady pace over the past 20 years.

"Our growth rate between 2001 and 2021 is 23 per cent, which is a little bit behind some of the other centres, but not all of them,' she said.

Wilkinson said Winnipeg was behind Toronto with a growth rate of 34 per cent, while places like Montreal and Hamilton had growth rates of 20 per cent and 17.9 per cent respectively in that same timeframe.

Tyler Markowsky, a city economist, said while growth has dipped recently he doesn't expect that to continue.

"We continue to monitor population trends, national and local, and will advise Council on how we anticipate these trends will impact growth in Winnipeg," Markowsky said in a written statement to CTV News.

"While it's too early to predict when it might occur, we do expect that population growth trends in Winnipeg will return to pre-pandemic levels."

Wilkinson said if the city wants to try and build growth at a pre-pandemic level again, it needs to highlight the positives of Winnipeg.

"I've lived in many cities in Canada and I think Winnipeg is the most underrated city ever…I don't think we take enough pride in advertising that. I think Winnipeg is Canada's best kept secret. And maybe as a province and as a municipality we need to celebrate our accomplishments and what you can do here in a much more open fashion than we have."