Household and Population Projections for Maritime Counties, Districts and Municipalities, 1986-2021

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

In this book may be found a detailed forecast of the population and households to the year 2021 in the 46 counties, districts, and municipalities of Newfoundland, P.E.I., Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.

By population, Akkerman means all persons within a geographic area; by households, he means family households. Thus, population in households refers to all persons in family households within a geographic area, persons in institutions or non-family households being excluded.

Based on data collected by Statistics Canada in the 1976 and 1981 censuses (and repeated for easy reference on pages 5-28 of this volume), as well as on Akkerman’s own forecasting algorithm (not repeated here), the forecasts are organized by five-year intervals and include the following tables: 1) persons by age (over five-year time-span) and area; 2) persons in households by age and area; 3) percentage of persons in total population by age and area; 4) percentage of persons by age for areas; 5) average number of persons per household by age and area; and 6) net migrants of preceding five years who have survived, by age and area.

No one can say how well Akkerman has done his work. What is clear, though, is that he is dependent upon both his sources and his methods. Interestingly, in 1984, Akkerman published a similar book, Household and Population Projections for Canadian Provinces and Territories 1981-2046, and it reveals that by 2021, the population of P.E.I. is scheduled to be 289,800; in this book, the total is scheduled to be somewhat less than half that: 143,200.

Well, if I were a housebuilder, I’d buy the first book.