Sacha Peter took a look at the signature numbers Elections BC stated was needed to achieve 10% in each riding with the size of the registered voters in each riding in the May 2009 election. I find this data very interesting. Full details on his blog.
Here are my 2 cents of observation on the numbers:
Overall there has been a gain of 1.6% in total voters from last year. Of the 10 ridings that grew more than 3%, four of them are rural ridings, a very interesting change in demographic trends in BC.
If we look at the North, of the 10 ridings, 9 of them increased. This is a change from the long term trend of decline. Stikine gained over 6% in population, thought it still has the lowest population in the province. Some others are Nechacko Lakes +3.3%, Peace North +1.7%, Cariboo-Chilcotin +3.5%, and North Coast +1.0. The slowest growth was in the two Prince George ridings with Prince George Mackenzie losing people.
The North had five ridings grow by more than the average and five by less. This mirrors the whole province and sounds unremarkable, but it is. For the last generation the population expansion in the province has been in the most urban areas of the province.
The numbers indicate that the population discrepancy between the most populous ridings and least populous has lessened to some extent. The worst difference was 3.89 times as many people in the most populous compared to the least in 2009. This is now 3.67 times. Normally this number has worsened over time and been the primary reason for the need to redistribute the ridings.
No comments:
Post a Comment