There are more than 35.1 million people living in Canada, according to Statistics Canada (Stats Can).

The first wave of data was released on Wednesday from the 2016 census. The numbers show our overall population grew 1.7 million from five years earlier.

Provincially, 4.6 million people now live in British Columbia, an increase of 7%. Both Whistler and Squamish were in the top 25 fastest growing municipalities with at least 5,000 people outside a metropolitan area. Whistler has a population of 11,854, an increase of 20.7% over 2011’s census. While Squamish’s population stands at 19,512, an increase of 13.7%. In B.C. the average population increase was 5.6% with the national average being 5.0%.

The Stats Can data unveiled today notes there were 7,377 private dwellings occupied in Squamish, which represents a change of 11.3%. In Whistler in 2016, there were 4,612 private dwellings, a change of 18.3%.

In 2016, two out of three people lived within 100 kilometres of the southern Canada–US border, an area that represents about 4% of Canada’s territory.

Filed under: Census, Data, DOS, Population, RMOW, Squamish, Statistics Canada, Whistler