Census shows declining population in the region

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Declining populations seem to be the norm in just about every community across the Rainy River District with the only exceptions being most First Nation Communities.
Census Canada released its first tidbits of information from the 2011 Census last week and across the District the population has declined 5.5% since the last census in 2006. The District’s total population in 2011 was 20,370, down from 21,564.
In the Town of Rainy River, the decline was even steeper, dropping to 842 from 909 or 7.4%. Our neighbour, Dawson Township dropped 9.2% to 563 from 620 people.
Lake of the Woods Twp. dropped 8.4% to 296 from 323.
Morley only had a 3.7% decline to 474 from 492.
Chapple dropped 13.4% to 741 from 856.
Emo went down 4.1% to 1,252 from 1,305.
LaVallee was down 7.4% to 988 from 1,067.
Alberton declined 9.8% to 864 from 958.
Fort Frances only dropped 1.9% to 7,952 from 8,103.
Atikokan declined 15.4% to 2,787 from 3,293.
Unorganized townships in the district dropped 19% to 1,159 from 1,431.
The news was the exact opposite for most First Nations communities in the district.
Close to Rainy River, Big Grassy increased 22.1% to 249 from 204.
Couchiching rose 15.2% to 796 from 691.
Long Sault 12 rose 18.2% to 39 from 33.
Manitou Rapids 11 rose a whopping 37.7% to 314 from 228.
Rainy Lake 17A increased 17.5% to 215 from 183.
Rainy Lake 17B had no change at 5.
Rainy Lake 26A rose 24.2% to 159 from 128.
Saug-a-Gaw-Sing increased 17.8% to 119 from 101.
A few declined and a few had statistics that do not seem to add up.
According to Stats Can Big Island had a 100% decline to 0 from 10. Neguaguon Lake 25D had a 25.3% decline to 192 from 257. Rainy Lake 18C had a 2.1% decline from 95 to 93.
Seine River 23A had a small change, losing one person from 272 to 271 or 0.4% decline.
To our north, Kenora, Nestor Falls-Sioux Narrows increased in numbers. Kenora went up 1.1% to 15,348 from 15,177. Nestor Falls-Sioux Narrows rose 7.1% to 720 from 672. However, overall the Kenora District had a larger decrease in population than Rainy River, dropping 10.6% to 57,607 from 64,419.