Census says New West's population jumps by 12.7 per cent
New Westminster's population grew at nearly double the provincial rate between 2006 and 2011 according to figures released by Statistics Canada last week.
The census pegged the city's growth at 12.7 per cent over those five years jumping from 58,549 resident to 65,976. During that time British Columbia's population went up by 7.0 per cent to 4.4 million.
The 12.7 per cent growth ranked New West third amongst Metro Vancouver municipalities behind Surrey (18.6) and Pitt Meadows (13.5) and ahead of neighbours Coquitlam (10.4), Burnaby (10.1) and Vancouver (4.4). Overall, the region's growth was 9.3 per cent going from 2.1 million to 2.3 million.
The median age of New Westminster was 41.2 years, a shade younger than the provincial average of 41.9, but slightly older than Metro Vancouver's median of 40.2. There are 8,835 who are 65-and-over, which makes up 13.4 per cent of the city's population, which at the other end there are 11,800 who are 19 or younger (17.9 per cent).
English was listed as the mother tongue of almost two-thirds (63.2) per cent of New Westminster residents.
The next highest is the Filipino language of Tagalog with 2,550 residents listing it as their mother tongue just ahead of Punjabi (2,530). Mandarin is third at 1,665 followed by unspecified Chinese languages such as Taiwanese (1,475), Spanish (1,090) and Cantonese and Spanish, both at 1,035.
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