THE BATTLEFORDS — Fewer people are living in the Battlefords compared to five years ago.
That is based on the 2021 census numbers released by Statistics Canada Wednesday, which recorded population declines in both North Battleford and Battleford.
According to Stats Can, the population of North Battleford came in at 13,836, down from 14,315 in 2016 for a decline of 3.3 per cent. Total private dwellings were 6,346 and the number of private dwellings occupied by usual residents was 5,696.
The town of Battleford also declined from 4,429 in 2016 to 4,400 in 2021, a decline of .7 per cent.
Total private dwellings were 1,877 and private dwellings occupied by usual residents were 1,758.
The declines come as a surprise, after both communities posted gains in population in 2016.
The North Battleford decline does spare city officials of one potential headache: had the city’s population hit 15,000, the city’s share of the RCMP contract would have gone up from 70 to 90 per cent. That would have put the city on the hook for roughly an additional $1 million in costs.
The population decline in the Battlefords mirrors those in several other smaller communities in the province, which also posted drops in the 2021 census. The biggest cities, however, posted gains. Saskatoon was up to 266,141, an increase of 7.7 per cent, while Regina was up to 226,404, a gain of 5.3 per cent.
As a whole, Saskatchewan recorded a population of 1,132,505, an increase from 2016 of 3.1 per cent.
