BCPB Home > Benchmarks > Rankings > Performance Indicator 8: Migration

Performance Indicator 8: Migrationn

Where BC Ranks, Provincial Comparison

Year

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Rank

5

8

8

6

7

6

2

2

2

3

Performance Indicator Eight tracks the overall movement of Canadians from one province to another.

British Columbia had strong in-migration in the early 1990s but this flow turned negative in 1997/98. It returned to a positive flow in 2003/04.

From 1997/98 to 2006/07, BC posted an annual average decrease of 0.6 people per 1,000 population. BC gained 9,880 migrants in 1996/97 and 35,525 from 2003/04 on, but lost 57,002 between 1997/98 and 2002/03. Alberta led Canada with an average annual increase of 9.4 people per 1,000 population over the 1997/98 to 2006/07 period.

Why It's Important
Net inter-provincial migration can serve as an indicator of a jurisdiction's attractiveness as a place to invest and work. Migration is an important contributing factor to economic growth and in expanding the pool of young, highly skilled workers. Historically, there has been a correlation between interprovincial migration ..ows and the relative economic strengths and weaknesses of a given jurisdiction.

Over the 1997/98 through 2006/07 period, BC lost 21,477 people to other provinces. British Columbia gained 7,865 people in 2003/04, 8,214 in 2004/05, 8,800 in 2005/06 and 10,646 in 2006/07 but lost at least 8,286 people and as many as 14,610 per year between 1997/98 and 2001/02.

Alberta gained 291,542 people from other provinces between 1997/98 and 2006/07, the largest increase of any province. Ontario (1,11 6) is the only other province with a net interprovincial gain of people during this period.

Quebec lost 88,544 people to other provinces; Saskatchewan lost 53,711 ; Manitoba lost 45,912; Newfoundland and Labrador lost 42,841; New Brunswick lost 16,675; Nova Scotia lost 14,341; and, Prince Edward Island lost 627.

North American Comparison

BC had a downward trend in net interprovincial migration from the 1992 peak of 1.16 percent of population to a trough of negative 0.36 percent in 1998 and 1999. Losses decreased slightly to 0.21 percent in 2000 and 2001 and to 0.03 percent in 2002. British Columbia has gained population from other provinces in every year since 2003.

British Columbia placed 24th among the 61 subnational jurisdictions on this indicator in 2006 with an increase of 0.3 percent of population. The District of Columbia, Rhode Island and New York all saw their population shrink by 1.2 percent while Arizona and Nevada gained an additional 2.2 percent each.

Population Change

British Columbia's population grew by over one million people between 1990 and 2007. British Columbia experienced a net outflow of people to other provinces in every year between 1997/98 and 2002/03 as the BC economy entered a slower growth phase and key competitors Alberta and Ontario improved their relative performance.

Notes
US state values from 1990 through 1999 are based on the 1990 Census; subsequent years are based on the 2000 Census. The 2000 values for the States are interpolated from the 1999 and 2001 values. Net domestic migration data (the US Census Bureau's inter-state migration indicator) are only available for one quarter in 2000, rather than the usual full year.

Although international immigration and the natural increase more than made up for the people moving to other provinces, the outflow meant total population grew slowly. Net interprovincial migration to BC turned positive again in 2003/04 and has remained positive since.

Even during the relatively slow growth period, BC's population growth was in the top three among the provinces. Measured as a percent of population, BC had the largest growth in every year between 1991 and 1996. It was surpassed by Alberta in 1997 and Ontario in 1998. BC pulled ahead of Ontario again in 2005 and in 2007 the increase in BC was almost double that in Ontario. However, it was slightly less than half that seen in Alberta.




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