100,000 on the horizon
CURRENT CENSUS WILL REVEAL IF LETHBRIDGE HAS REACHED POPULATION MILESTONE
Will Lethbridge’s population hit 100,000 this month? David Sarsfield says it’s a little too soon to tell. But the deputy city clerk reports residents are responding quickly to the annual census.
By Tuesday morning — the first day of business after the Easter weekend — he says about 20 per cent of the city’s 43,500 households had already filed their information over the Internet.
Census takers began dropping census information cards at every home on the weekend, Sarsfield says. All should be delivered by Thursday.
Each card carried an identification code, and residents can reply right away by keying that code into the city’s website at www.lethbridge.ca/census
As before, he adds, the information asked is simple: How many people live there, and what are their ages and gender.
No names are asked, and all information gathered is confidential. It’s what the province asks to help determine the size of provincial grants Lethbridge will qualify for in support of projects like the new westside fire hall, or recreational facilities like the Legacy Regional Park opening later this year in north Lethbridge.
“The purpose of the census is to help the City of Lethbridge maximize the per-capita funding we receive from other orders of government.” Sarsfield says.
Last year’s census results showed a population of 98,198 — an increase of 1.4 per cent from 2016. But two years ago, the growth was 2.13 per cent from the previous census. And the 2014 census showed an increase of 2.86 per cent from 2013.
A two-per-cent bump this year would push Lethbridge’s population past the 100,160 mark.
“It will be exciting if we pass it,” Sarsfield says, but the numbers are just starting to come in. “It will be close.” About 36 per cent of the city’s residents filed online last year, he says. While some simply phoned in their information — another option — the majority waited for their neighbourhood’s census taker to come to the door.
About 130 men and women are undertaking that job this year, Sarsfield says. All wear photo identification — and hope to get their area completed over the first three weeks of the month.
Because the information they ask is so basic, he adds, few report any reluctance to respond.
Results will be released later in the spring.
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