Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
Agreed. 1000 people is a pretty meaningless number when the provinces have a combined population of about 11,000,000 with many transitory people in both provinces to start with.
Anecdotally, I do think people are less likely to settle down in BC, as the cost of raising a family is very prohibitive. I'd like to see stats on it, but, from what I've observed, many people aged 20-35ish move to BC but then many people 35+ move out to settle down in more affordable pastures. While in Alberta, many people 20-30 move out, but often come back, and more people 30+ move to Alberta from BC.
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I think that's partly right (particularly people moving to Alberta with young kids), but based on the data BC's biggest gains over the last 5 years have been working age people. About 85% of total net migration in BC over that period has been people aged 25-59, while their 60+ net migration numbers are negative.
Whereas for Alberta, that working-age cohort has only represented about 48% of net migration and they've gained almost 12,000 seniors through migration (equivalent to 1.5% of the senior population).
Based on that data, it seems like BC attracts working age people of all ages (each 5-year age cohort in that group has had positive net migration) but has seniors leaving to retire in cheaper locations. While Alberta attracts working age people with kids and seniors to some extent. The senior part is actually a bit surprising to me. If BC had flat net migration of seniors over the last 5 years, their 65+ population would be about 2% larger than it is.