District of Clearwater’s population has increased by 4.8 per cent in the past five years, from 2,225 in 2006 to 2,331 in 2011, according to Statistics Canada.
However, the numbers don’t tell the whole story and the increase might not be that much.
Next to the numbers on the Stats Can website is a note that warns it is based on boundaries that might have been moved. The difficulty is that the District of Clearwater hadn’t been formed as a municipality back in 2006 and so it would be difficult to say exactly what the population within its boundaries was at that time.
During the same time period, according to Stats Can, the population of Wells Gray Country (Area A) declined 8.1 per cent, from 1,672 in 2006 to 1,536 in 2011.
Adding the population of Clearwater and Wells Gray Country together gives a total of 3,897 in 2006 and 3,867 in 2011, a 0.8 per cent decline.
Further north in the Valley, Thompson Headwaters (Area B) showed a 5.2 per cent increase during the five years. The population of the Blue River and Avola area went from 269 in 2006 to 283 in 2011.
Moving south, the population of Lower North Thompson (Area O) showed a decline of 13.6 per cent, from 1,546 to 1,335. However, the population of District of Barriere went up by 23.8 per cent, from 1,432 to 1,773.
The population of North Thompson Indian Reserve 1 showed a 6.8 per cent increase. It went from 236 in 2006 to 252 in 2011.