The Economics and Statistics Division maintains archives of previous publications for accountability purposes, but makes no updates to keep these documents current with the latest data revisions from Statistics Canada. As a result, information in older documents may not be accurate. Please exercise caution when referring to older documents. For the latest information and historical data, please contact the individual listed to the right.
<--- Return to Archive
For additional information relating to this article, please contact:
December 20, 2013PROVINCIAL ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS HISTORICAL REVISIONS: 1981-2006 Statistics Canada has released historical revisions to the Provincial Economic Accounts, bringing the entire time series for 1981-2012 onto the same structure (SNA2012) as the 2007-2012 data released in November.
With this extended time series, the underlying trends in Nova Scotia's economic growth become apparent.
In the period from 1981-1990, Nova Scotia's real GDP ($2007 chained) grew at an annual average pace of 2.9 per cent, the third fastest pace of growth in the country. By the 1990s, Nova Scotia's pace of growth had slowed to an annual average of 1.8 per cent, the slowest growth in the country. Since 2000, Nova Scotia's growth has been just 1.5 per cent on average, the second slowest in the country.
Over the period from 1993-2012, Nova Scotia's economic growth averaged 1.9 per cent, lagging every province in the country except New Brunswick (1.8 per cent). This period coincides with relative stability in key monetary, trade and fiscal policies across time, indicating the underlying potential growth trend for the Province. Nominal GDP over this period (which aligns more closely to the Province's capacity to generate tax revenues) grew at an annual average pace of 3.8 per cent, the slowest in the country.
Growth in real GDP is often regarded as the indicator of aggregate economic prosperity. However, real GDP per capita indicates how individual standards of living have been improved. Arithmetically, growth in total real GDP can be broken down into population growth and growth in GDP per capita. In this regard, the long run trend in Nova Scotia's economic growth highlights the role that demographics plays in the long run growth trends.
The chart below shows that Nova Scotia's real GDP growth from 1993-2012 averaged 1.9 per cent per year. Over that period, Nova Scotia's population growth averaged only 0.1 per cent per year (second slowest in the country after NB). This leaves per capita real GDP growth of 1.8 per cent in Nova Scotia, an indicator of how the system of production improves living standards for those remaining in the province. In comparison, Canada's real GDP grew at an annual average pace of 2.7 per cent, but population grew at a pace of 1.0 per cent. So Canada's real GDP per capita grew at a pace of 1.6 per cent.
From a different perspective, consider if Nova Scotia's population had grown at the same rate as the national average. If the system of production maintained the same pace of growth in per capita GDP as observed, then Nova Scotia would have enjoyed the second fastest overall economic growth in the country. Had Alberta experienced the same population growth as Nova Scotia, combined with Alberta's observed growth in per capita GDP, it would have had the slowest pace of overall economic growth in the country.
Although this simple demonstration highlights the role that population and demography plays in economic growth, there are many complexities underlying the interaction between population growth and economic performance.
Source:
Statistics Canada, CANSIM Table 384-0038
<--- Return to Archive
