Wilf Falk from the Manitoba Bureau of Statistics says it will provide more extensive details about which communities have had growing populations or declining ones.
"Of course, we've always had that type of information available anecdotally, but here we're gonna have some factual information. Also, you can look at the trend over time and you can see how a community is changing. Are we having more individuals who are in the older age groups, and from a community leader perspective, what does that mean for the delivery of services?"
Falk calls the census "critical for the information that it can provide for our communities", saying the details about the population of each municipality as well as the median age are important factors for the growth of the labour force in every community.
He adds that while the population of Manitoba is projected to increase to almost 1.4 million people by 2020, but the population in the Parkland is expected to go down.
"The Dauphin, Swan River, Ethelbert, etc. area is the oldest part of Manitoba. They've got roughly speaking right now in the area of 25 per cent individuals who are 65 and older. That's the highest percentage in the province."
The median age for the Parkland is 45.2 years, which is the highest in Manitoba, while the median age for the province as a whole is 37.7 years.
