Alberta’s no stranger to energy booms but what it’s seeing right now is a boom of a different sort, as it grows by an average of 367 people every single day.
According to numbers released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, Alberta was the fastest growing province in Canada during the third quarter of 2012.
Although on average, the country grew by one per cent since January 2012, reaching 35 million in October, Alberta grew by 33,100 people for a 0.9 per cent growth rate during the third quarter alone, said Stats Canada.
STORY CONTINUES AFTER GALLERY..
As of October of this year, Alberta’s population is estimated to sit at 3,906,800, in the heels of growth not seen in the province in more than three decades, Stats Canada said.
“Population increase had not been this high for any quarter, with the exception of the third quarter of 1980,” said the agency.
“This growth was mainly the result of net interprovincial migration (+13,900), with net gain with Ontario (+5,900) and British Columbia (+4,000).”
Saskatchewan was the province with the second largest growth over the same time period, with 6,600 people making the move to that province, which accounts for a 0.6 per cent growth, for an estimated population of 1,086,564, Stats Canada said.
B.C. was third with a growth rate of 0.4 per cent.