The population in the Smithers region has gone down slightly within the last five years.
This is according to Statistics Canada which found that the population in the community went from 5,401 in 2016 to 5,378 a 0.4% decrease in the census subdivision.
Meanwhile, the population centre for the Smithers area saw a decrease of 0.7% where 5,316 people lived in the community in 2021 compared to 2016 where 5,351 people lived in the area.
In Houston, the census subdivision found that in the last five years there was an increase of 2 %.
In 2021, there were 3,052 people living in the district compared to 2,993 in 2016.
As for the population centre, it went down 1.9% with the population at 2,126 in 2016 and 2,085 in 2021.
Meanwhile, the census subdivision went up for communities like Granisle.
The Village saw an increase of 11.2% where 337 people were living in the community in 2021 compared to 303 in 2016.
As for Burns Lake, the census subdivision saw a decrease of 6.7% as the population came in at 1,659 in 2021 compared to 1,775 in 2016.
Meanwhile, the population centre saw an increase of 9% within the last five years as the population was 2,117 in 2021 compared to 1,942 in 2016.
Additionally, Analyst Stacey Hallman said B.C. was the second fastest growing province.
“This means that it just crossed the 5 million threshold for the first time. However, growth in Canada is mainly a story of immigration and immigrants tend to settle in large urban areas,” she said.
Hallman also said within the municipalities in the Bulkley Valley and Lakes District growth is not as strong.
“When we’re looking at smaller municipalities growth tends to come from interprovincial migration, so people moving there from other parts of Canada or naturally increase,” she said.
Canada’s population is estimated to be 36,991,981, compared to 35,151,728.