This research examines population migration flows across Canadian regions
with a purpose to further investigate the regional capacity to attract and retain
population. The geographic unit of analysis used in this study is the selfcontained
labour areas as defined by Munro et al. (2011). Two peer groups of
SLAs are defined based on their total population: smaller SLAs with population
under 100,000 residents and larger SLAs with 100,000 or more residents.
Within each group three levels of competitiveness are defined based on the
average growth of the peer group (Lower, Neutral, Higher). The present
analysis focuses on examining the overall population flows between those six
types of SLAs and by taking into account specific demographic characteristics
such as age groups, education levels, occupational skill levels, immigration
and income levels. The data used for the analysis is from the 2006 Census of
Population, however the results are expected to be relevant and provide a useful
background for a discussion on rural regions.