Kelowna's growth slowing

Photo: File photo

The population growth of the Kelowna Census Metropolitan Area is slowing.

The rate of population growth within the Kelowna Census Metropolitan area has slowed down.

While the region, which encompasses the area between Peachland and Lake Country, remains the fastest growing CMA in the province, growth has slowed to 1.4 per cent according to the latest population figures released by Statistics Canada.

That compares to a growth rate of about two per cent over the past three years. Figures dating back to 2013 show the CMA grew by 1.8 per cent in 2014, and 2.1 per cent in both 2015 and 2016.

The current CMA population, as of July 2017, is 202,208.

The Kelowna CMA growth rate does remain larger than the other CMA's in the province. Victoria and Abbotsford-Mission grew by 1.2 per cent in 2017 while Vancouver had a growth rate of 1.1 per cent.

The region's growth rate was above the overall national average of 1.2 per cent, but below the average of all 34 CMAs in the country, which was 1.5 per cent.

While the city itself continues to tout its large growth, the numbers released by Stats Can do not specifically differentiate between Kelowna and the region.

Where the area does shine is with interprovincial migration which, at 1 per cent, is the highest in the country.

However, the CMA is still struggling to bring in, and retain workers. The area is 29th out of 34 CMA's with just 65.1 per cent of the population between 15 and 64, the working age.

We also have the third lowest rate of people age 0-14 at 13.6 per cent, and fifth in terms of people 65 and over at 21.3 per cent.