Edmonton Growth Reports

If you have some free time this weekend you could read the 160 pages of the 2015 Growth monitoring report and Edmonton Growth study released this week.

In short Edmonton is an economic leader and is growing city with a young demographic. Over the next 50 years the city is expected to double in population.

"Alberta continues to lead the country in economic growth. Its economy has grown on average by over 4% per year over the last three years and is forecast to grow by 3% per year over the next three years. The Edmonton-Calgary corridor demonstrates this economic activity having generated 60% of Canada’s overall job growth for the year ending July 2014. The Edmonton Region plays an important role in the Alberta economy, given its proximity to the world’s third-largest oil reserve. Edmonton has been leading or among the leading Canadian cities in terms of GDP growth over the past three years with that trend expected to continue for another five years.

 Strong economic fundamentals in Edmonton have created the need to accommodate
growth. Edmonton’s population grew by roughly 60,000 from 2012 to 2014, an increase of 7.4%. Much of that increase is mainly due to young adults migrating into the city. Housing starts have been pacing the population averaging 10,000 new housing over the last two years. The growth pressures to accommodate the added population have been strongest within south Edmonton. For example, 45% of the added population over the last two years occurred within the two southern most Wards. Demand for industrial land has been just as strong. The average annual absorption rate for the past three years –206 net hectares –is in the order of 85% higher than the previous eight year average. These growth demands are applying pressure on Edmonton’s supply of land for future residential and industrial development." City of Edmonton Growth Study

• The City of Edmonton continues to grow “up,” “in“ and “out.” The current findings confirm the complexity of maintaining growth balance between core, mature and established neighbourhoods and developing or “new” neighbourhoods.

• A demographic shift is occurring in mature and established areas of the city. The population is ageing and households are decreasing in size. There will be a significant increase in lone person and two person households.

• The 2014 Edmonton Municipal census counted 877, 926 people, 60,428 more residents from 2012.

• The Edmonton CMA is comparatively much younger than major Canadian city regions with a median age of 36 years  2015 Growth Monitoring Report