Canada's Rural Population in Decline

In 2006, Canada's rural population had declined to about 19% of the country's population, compared with 20% in 2001.

Canada's rural population, namely people who live outside the commuting zone of larger urban centres, has remained fairly stable at about 6 million since 1981.

However, stronger growth among the population of larger urban centres has meant that these 6 million people represent a smaller share of Canada's total population.

Between 2001 and 2006, the population in rural and small town areas grew by 1%. This was much slower than the growth of 6.4% in larger urban centres.

Within these rural and small town areas, population growth was highest during this five-year period in areas strongly linked to urban centres (+4.7%). In areas weakly linked to urban centres, the population declined 1.4%.

Each province showed a similar pattern. In zones that were less linked to urban centres, the population declined more, or growth was slower.

However, in both Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador, the overall rural and small town population has been declining since 1986.

Although the 1.4 million rural and small town inhabitants in Ontario represented a relatively small share of Ontario's total population, they constituted 24% of Canada's total rural and small town population in 2006. Quebec's share of the total rural and small town population was slightly higher at 25%.

Source : Statistics Canada

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