{"id":1043,"date":"2012-05-27T15:55:33","date_gmt":"2012-05-27T22:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hotpepper.ca\/?p=1043"},"modified":"2020-04-03T13:55:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T19:55:45","slug":"i-love-the-urbanity-of-lethbridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2012\/05\/27\/i-love-the-urbanity-of-lethbridge\/","title":{"rendered":"I love the urbanity of Lethbridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the last few weeks, I\u2019ve had several discussions with others about whether Lethbridge is urban.<\/p>\n

Actually, discussion might be pushing it since most of the conversation was me pointing out logically (using actual definitions) on how Lethbridge qualifies as urban and most responses opposing my point based on subjective opinions on what qualifies as urban. Or more specifically, why Lethbridge is rural.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get a few things straight.<\/p>\n

Statistics Canada, the federal government agency responsible for compiling data on Canada\u2019s population, resources, economy, society, and culture, defines urban<\/a> as the following:<\/p>\n

An urban area has a minimum population concentration of 1,000 persons<\/strong> and a population density of at least 400 persons<\/strong> per square kilometre, based on the current census population count. . . .<\/p>\n

Urban population includes all population living in the urban cores, secondary urban cores and urban fringes of census metropolitan areas\u00a0(CMAs)<\/abbr>\u00a0and census agglomerations(CAs) . . .<\/abbr><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Statistics Canada\u2019s federal census last year, Lethbridge\u2019s population was\u00a083,517<\/strong> and its size was 122.36 square kilometres, putting it population density at 682.6 persons<\/strong> per square kilometre.<\/p>\n

Lethbridge\u2019s annual municipal census is always large because it includes postsecondary students whose parents don\u2019t live in Lethbridge, which the federal census doesn\u2019t include. Last year\u2019s municipal census came in at 87,882<\/strong>, putting population density at 718.2 persons<\/strong> per square kilometre.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, for several decades, Lethbridge has qualified as a census agglomeration<\/strong>, which a smaller version of a census metropolitan area. Statistics Canada defines census agglomeration<\/a> as the following:<\/p>\n

A\u00a0CA<\/abbr>\u00a0must have an urban core population of at least 10,000. To be included in the . . .\u00a0CA<\/abbr>, other adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the central urban area, as measured by commuting flows derived from census place of work data<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To graduate to a census metropolitan area, the CA needs to have a population of over 100,000 people and at least 50,000 of them must live in the urban core. In the 2011 census<\/a>, the\u00a0Lethbridge\u00a0Census Agglomeration population finally surpassed 100,000, and as I pointed out earlier, more than 50,000 people live in Lethbridge. Lethbridge now qualifies as a CMA<\/strong> based on StatCan\u2019s definition, but it will be awhile before the change is officially made.<\/p>\n

In the 2006 census<\/a> (2011 figures haven\u2019t been\u00a0released\u00a0for these data), Lethbridge had a workforce of\u00a050,425 persons. The 2005\u20132006 business investment profile<\/a> published by Economic Development Lethbridge indicated that when you consider all the people who commute to Lethbridge from within a 100 kilometre radius, that number actually increases to 86,000, suggesting over 36,000 people commute to Lethbridge from outlying communities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, Statistics Canada felt the term \u201curban\u201d was too subjective, so they replaced it with the term \u201cpopulation centre\u201d<\/a>\u00a0last year. Population centres are classified as small (pop. 1,000 to 29,999), medium (pop. 30,000 to 99,999), and large (pop. over 100,000). With the urban statistics released last year, Lethbridge qualifies as a large population centre.<\/p>\n

Given all that, why are people still so insistent that Lethbridge is some sort of hick town, and not a urban city with a diverse\u00a0economy, a vibrant arts and entertainment scene, an impressive built environment, and a university and college?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the last few weeks, I\u2019ve had several discussions with others about whether Lethbridge is urban. Actually, discussion might be pushing it since most of the conversation was me pointing out logically (using actual definitions) on how Lethbridge qualifies as urban and most responses opposing my point based on subjective opinions on what qualifies as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[77],"class_list":["post-1043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lethbridge","tag-lethbridge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4NkW7-gP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4280,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/03\/18\/lethbridge-is-not-a-mormon-town\/","url_meta":{"origin":1043,"position":0},"title":"Lethbridge is not a Mormon town","author":"Kim Siever","date":"18 March 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In fact, there are roughly 400% more non-religious people in Lethbridge than there are Mormons.","rel":"","context":"In "Lethbridge"","block_context":{"text":"Lethbridge","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/lethbridge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/240798_406789556048013_819195730_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/240798_406789556048013_819195730_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/240798_406789556048013_819195730_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/240798_406789556048013_819195730_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/240798_406789556048013_819195730_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":609,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2009\/06\/27\/lethbridge-reaches-85000\/","url_meta":{"origin":1043,"position":1},"title":"Lethbridge reaches 85,000","author":"Kim Siever","date":"27 June 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This April, the City of Lethbridge conducted it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s annual census. Yesterday, they published the results. Here is a summary: The new population as of April was 85,492.\u00c2\u00a0At 30,489, the Westside now has the most people of the three areas. 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