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March 11, 2015POPULATION CHANGES BY CENSUS DIVISION, 1976-2014 Nova Scotia saw a 12.1% increase of the total population during the period from 1976 to 2014. At the Census Division (County) level, Halifax County had the largest growth (32.8%) followed by Hants County (24.9%) and Kings County (21.3%). Two thirds of the counties saw population decline during the same period, with the largest decrease occurred in Guysborough County (-67.8%), followed by Richmond County (-36.1%) and Cape Breton County (-28.3%).
As a whole, the province saw population growth consecutively over different time periods, although the growth rate started to decline after 1990. Similar pattern was observed in Halifax County. While the rest of the province saw population increase during the first two time periods before the decline.
Looking closer to individual counties, population changes were mapped during five different time periods (1976-1980, 1980-1990, 1990-2000, 2000-2010, and 2010-2014). Click on the image to enlarge the map.
Over the period of 1976-1980, population grew in most counties with the largest increase observed in Lunenburg County (6.4%).
Population were still going up in most counties during the 10 years starting 1980, with largest increase reported by Halifax County (13.9%).
During the period of 1990-2000, population increases were reported in counties surrounding Halifax County, while counties in Southern and Cape Breton economic regions had population decline which ranges from -1.7% to -17.8%.
Including Halifax County, 3 other counties (Colchester, Hants and Kings) saw population growth during the period of 2000-2010. Rest of the counties saw decline in population over the 10-year period, with the largest decrease in Guysborough County (-23.3%).
Only two counties saw population growth (Halifax and Hants County) during the period of 2010-2014, decreases were reported in the rest counties.
Source: Population Estimates (1976-2014), Statistics Canada.