Here are the fastest growing and shrinking communities in Alberta

The 2021 Canadian census has revealed some widespread trends across the country and Alberta is no exception.

As people fled urban centres during the pandemic for more space and the quieter life, smaller centres on the outskirts of big cities or even far-flung resort towns have reaped the benefits of increased citizens and a greater tax base.

Canmore, Alta., was among a handful of what Statistics Canada called "tourist destinations or resort cities" that topped the list of fastest growing communities over the last five years.

But Canmore made that top-five list because it is big enough to be considered a separate town and not part of a larger Census Metropolitan Area (CMA).

Alberta has three CMAs — urban areas of more than 100,000 inhabitants — including Edmonton, Calgary and now with this most recent census, Lethbridge, which surpassed 100,000 in population since 2016.

Then there are 14 more cities like Canmore called Census Agglomerations (CA), which are communities not part of a CMA that are between 10,000 and 100,000 people.

Here is a chart showing the population change in Alberta's CMA and CAs, where Canmore is on top.

But measuring only those communities can prevent you from seeing other trends. For example, four cities within the metropolitan Edmonton and Calgary saw higher growth than Canmore. 

Edmonton and Calgary on their own, without their surrounding communities, didn't even crack the top ten in growth.

Then there is the opposite end of the scale — some communities did lose population or barely grew at all. Here are the 10 communities that shrank the most.

When you look at communities smaller than 10,000 people, the changes can show very dramatic growth numbers, with population numbers going from dozens to hundreds. Two sparsely populated places in the province had a 100 per cent drop in population. That is, no one lives there anymore.

If you would like to see how your community changed, browse the table or map below, which contain every Census Subdivision in Alberta.