Moving Trends: Saskatchewan’s population continues to grow, despite more people leaving than coming in from other provinces

Being in the moving and storage business, I like to keep an eye on the latest migration trends in Saskatchewan. Since the article I shared on the topic last month, our province has continued to experience population growth, with our two largest cities, Saskatoon and Regina, leading the national growth rate in 2016 and 2017 (Saskatoon grew by 2.8% this year, Regina by 2.4%.) This is heavily driven by international migration. While BigSteeelBox doesn’t facilitate international moves, I can say firsthand that we’ve seen a lot of people moving to and from Saskatoon and Regina.

However, it’s not just people moving into the province – our services are also heavily used for interprovincial moves from Saskatchewan to other provinces. In fact, a Statistics Canada report found that more people are moving from Saskatchewan to other provinces than there are people from other provinces moving here – Saskatchewan is losing residents to Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, primarily.

As the report explains, international migration, students as well as growing birth rates are keeping Saskatchewan’s population booming. But while many Saskatchewan residents are heading west to an economically strong Alberta for now, housing prices at home continue to be sound comparatively. Houses in Regina and Saskatoon have a lower average price than many other cities across Canada; an attractive selling point for a younger demographic who continues to be priced out of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.