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Focus on Geography Series, 2011 Census

Census subdivision of Sylvan Lake, T - Alberta ¹

Map of Sylvan Lake, T

Interactive version of map

Population, 2011 and 2006 censuses

Chart A description: Sylvan Lake, T - Population, 2011 and 2006 censuses

Prov. rank

Nat. rank

321

In 2011, Sylvan Lake (Town) had a population of 12,327, representing a percentage change of 20.3% from 2006. This compares to the national average growth of 5.9%.

Land area is 15.62 square kilometres with a population density of 789.4 persons per square kilometre. This compares to the provincial land area of 640,081.87 square kilometres with a population density of 5.7 persons per square kilometre.

In 2011, Sylvan Lake (Town) had 4,602 private dwellings occupied by usual residents. The change in private dwellings occupied by usual residents from 2006 was 25.1%. For Canada as a whole, the number of private dwellings occupied by usual residents increased 7.1%.

Sylvan Lake (Town) is part of the census agglomeration of Sylvan Lake (Alberta).

Population and dwelling counts

Sylvan Lake (Town) – Neighbouring census subdivisions

Table 1 Sylvan Lake (Town) – Neighbouring census subdivisions, population change, 2006 to 2011
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	Population
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	2011	2006	% change
Red Deer County, Alta.	MD	18,351	18,649 A	-1.6
Jarvis Bay, Alta.	SV	203	183	10.9
Norglenwold, Alta.	SV	232	270	-14.1

Alberta – Census subdivisions with 5,000-plus population with the highest population growth

Table 2 Alberta – Census subdivisions with 5,000-plus population with the highest population growth, population change, 2006 to 2011
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	Population
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	2011	2006	% change
Chestermere	T	14,824	9,923 A	49.4
Beaumont	T	13,284	8,961	48.2
Airdrie	CY	42,564	28,927	47.1
Leduc	CY	24,279	16,967	43.1
Okotoks	T	24,511	17,150 A	42.9

Alberta – Census subdivisions with 5,000-plus population with the lowest population growth

Table 3 Alberta – Census subdivisions with 5,000-plus population with the lowest population growth, population change, 2006 to 2011
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	Population
Census subdivision (CSD) name	CSD type	2011	2006	% change
Lac la Biche County	MD	8,402	9,123 A	-7.9
Willow Creek No. 26	MD	5,107	5,337	-4.3
Crowsnest Pass	SM	5,565	5,749	-3.2
Greenview No. 16	MD	5,299	5,464	-3.0
Lethbridge County	MD	10,061	10,254 A	-1.9

Age and sex

Sylvan Lake, T – Age distribution

Chart C: Sylvan Lake, T - Population by broad age groups

Chart C description: Sylvan Lake, T - Population by broad age groups

Table 4 Sylvan Lake, T – Age distributions by broad age groups and sex, 2011 Census
Age groups	Both sexes	Males	Females
0 to 14	23.6%	23.9%	23.3%
15 to 64	69.9%	70.6%	69.2%
65 and over	6.5%	5.5%	7.6%

In 2011, the percentage of the population aged 65 and over in Sylvan Lake, T was 6.5%, compared with a national percentage of 14.8%. The percentage of the working age population (15 to 64) was 69.9% and the percentage of children aged 0 to 14 was 23.6%. In comparison, the national percentages were 68.5% for the population aged 15 to 64 and 16.7% for the population aged 0 to 14.

Sylvan Lake, T – Population by broad age groups and sex

Table 5 Sylvan Lake, T – Population by broad age groups, sex and population change between 2006 and 2011, 2006 to 2011 censuses
Broad age groups by sex	Population
Broad age groups by sex	2011	2006	change	% change
Both sexes
Total	12,330	10,250	2,080	20.3
0 to 14	2,910	2,495	415	16.6
15 to 64	8,615	7,055	1,560	22.1
65 and over	800	700	100	14.3
Males
Total	6,245	5,215	1,030	19.8
0 to 14	1,495	1,240	255	20.6
15 to 64	4,410	3,690	720	19.5
65 and over	345	280	65	23.2
Females
Total	6,080	5,035	1,045	20.8
0 to 14	1,415	1,250	165	13.2
15 to 64	4,210	3,360	850	25.3
65 and over	460	420	40	9.5

Sylvan Lake, T – Population by five-year age groups and sex

Chart D description: Sylvan Lake, T - Population by five-year age groups and sex

Table 6 Sylvan Lake, T – Population by five-year age groups and sex, 2011 Census
Age groups	Both sexes	Males	Females
Total - Age groups	12,330	6,245	6,080
0 to 4 years	1,035	540	490
5 to 9 years	920	465	455
10 to 14 years	955	485	470
15 to 19 years	850	430	420
20 to 24 years	895	490	405
25 to 29 years	1,110	570	545
30 to 34 years	1,140	585	555
35 to 39 years	1,015	510	505
40 to 44 years	855	440	415
45 to 49 years	880	435	450
50 to 54 years	810	425	385
55 to 59 years	640	325	315
60 to 64 years	415	200	215
65 to 69 years	255	130	125
70 to 74 years	215	100	125
75 to 79 years	130	55	80
80 to 84 years	100	45	55
85 years and over	100	20	75
Median age	31.8	31.3	32.3

Sylvan Lake, T – Median age² of the population

Chart E: Canada, Alberta and Sylvan Lake, T - Median age, 2006 and 2011 censuses

Chart E description: Canada, Alberta and Sylvan Lake, T - Median age, 2006 and 2011 censuses

In 2011, the median age in Sylvan Lake, T was 31.8 years. In comparison, the median age of Alberta was 36.5 years.

Table 7 Canada, Alberta and Sylvan Lake, T – Median age, 2006 and 2011 censuses
	Median age
	2006	2011
Canada	39.5	40.6
Alberta	36.0	36.5
Sylvan Lake, T	31.2	31.8

Families and households

In 2011, the number of census families³ in Sylvan Lake was 3,415, which represents a change of 21.3% from 2006. This compares to a growth rate for Canada of 5.5% over the same period.

In Sylvan Lake, 65.3% of census families were married couples in 2011, while 18.9% were common-law-couples and 15.8% were lone-parent families.

Chart F: Sylvan Lake - Census families by family structure

Chart F description: Sylvan Lake - Census families by family structure

Sylvan Lake – Family structure

Table 8 Canada, Alberta, CSD of Sylvan Lake, T and neighbouring census subdivisions – Distribution of census families by family structure, 2011 Census
Geographic name	Total families	Married-couple families		Common-law-couple families		Lone-parent families		% change, census families, 2006 to 2011
Geographic name	Total families	number	%	number	%	number	%	% change, census families, 2006 to 2011
Canada †	9,389,695	6,293,950	67.0	1,567,905	16.7	1,527,840	16.3	5.5
Alberta †	999,525	719,355	72.0	135,660	13.6	144,510	14.5	10.5
Sylvan Lake, T	3,415	2,230	65.3	645	18.9	540	15.8	21.3
Red Deer County, MD	5,410	4,445	82.2	530	9.8	435	8.0	0.4
Jarvis Bay, SV	65	50	76.9	10	15.4	5	7.7	-7.1
Norglenwold, SV	80	65	81.3	5	6.3	5	6.3	-11.1

Sylvan Lake – Presence of children within couple families

Among couples (married and common-law) in the census subdivision of Sylvan Lake, 56.0% were couples with children aged 24 and under at home. In comparison, as a whole, 46.9% of couples in Canada had children aged 24 and under at home.

Presence of children within couple families
* Children aged 24 and under at home
Married couples with children *	1,275
Married couples without children *	955
Common-law-couples with children *	335
Common-law-couples without children *	310

Sylvan Lake – Marital status

Chart H description: Sylvan Lake - Marital status

In Sylvan Lake, 62.0% of the total population aged 15 and over were either married (48.3%) or living with a common-law partner (13.7%).

The remaining 38.0% were not married and not living with a common-law partner, including those who were single (never-married), separated, divorced or widowed.

Note: Percentages may not total 100 percent due to random rounding.

Table 9 Canada, Alberta, Sylvan Lake, T – Population 15 years and older by marital status, 2011 Census
Marital status	Sylvan Lake, T		Alberta		Canada
Marital status	number	%	number	%	number	%
Total - Population 15 years and over	9,415	100.0	2,960,470	100.0	27,869,345	100.0
Married or living with a common-law partner	5,835	62.0	1,756,860	59.3	16,084,490	57.7
Married (and not separated)	4,545	48.3	1,484,705	50.2	12,941,965	46.4
Living common-law	1,290	13.7	272,155	9.2	3,142,525	11.3
Not married and not living with a common-law partner	3,575	38.0	1,203,615	40.7	11,784,855	42.3
Single (never legally married)	2,385	25.3	823,935	27.8	7,816,045	28.0
Separated	260	2.8	70,855	2.4	698,245	2.5
Divorced	630	6.7	177,375	6.0	1,686,035	6.0
Widowed	300	3.2	131,440	4.4	1,584,525	5.7

Sylvan Lake – Types of private households

There were 4,605 private households⁴ in Sylvan Lake in 2011, a change of 25.3% from 2006. Of these, 34.5% of households were comprised of couples with children aged 24 and under at home, a change of 10.8% compared with five years earlier.

Table 10 Canada, Alberta, Sylvan Lake, T – Distribution of households by household type, 2011 Census
Household type⁵	Sylvan Lake, T		Alberta		Canada
Household type⁵	number	%	number	%	number	%
Total private households	4,605	100.0	1,390,275	100.0	13,320,615	100.0
Couple-family households with children aged 24 and under at home⁶	1,590	34.5	407,145	29.3	3,524,915	26.5
Couple-family households without children aged 24 and under at home⁷	1,225	26.6	406,380	29.2	3,935,540	29.5
Lone-parent family households⁸	500	10.9	128,330	9.2	1,375,450	10.3
One-person households	960	20.8	342,735	24.7	3,673,310	27.6
Multiple family households⁹	55	1.2	27,900	2.0	268,060	2.0
Other households¹⁰	275	6.0	77,785	5.6	543,340	4.1

Sylvan Lake – Structural type of dwelling

In Sylvan Lake, 71.0% of private households lived in single-detached houses and 0.0% lived in apartments in buildings that have five or more storeys. The rest lived in other types of dwelling structures.

Table 11 Canada, Alberta, Sylvan Lake, T – Distribution of private households by structural type of dwelling, 2011 Census
Structural type of dwelling	Sylvan Lake, T		Alberta		Canada
Structural type of dwelling	number	%	number	%	number	%
Total - Structural type of dwelling	4,605	100.0	1,390,275	100.0	13,320,615	100.0
Single-detached house	3,270	71.0	883,260	63.5	7,329,150	55.0
Semi-detached house	260	5.6	71,850	5.2	646,240	4.9
Row house	345	7.5	97,865	7.0	791,600	5.9
Apartment, building that has five or more storeys	0	0.0	58,205	4.2	1,234,770	9.3
Apartment, building that has fewer than five storeys	380	8.3	197,945	14.2	2,397,555	18.0
Apartment, duplex	165	3.6	33,505	2.4	704,485	5.3
Other single-attached house¹¹	5	0.1	1,060	0.1	33,310	0.3
Movable dwelling¹²	165	3.6	46,590	3.4	183,510	1.4

Language

Sylvan Lake, T – Mother tongue

Chart J description: Sylvan Lake, T - Mother tongue and language spoken most often at home

Note: Counts for mother tongue as well as those for language spoken most often at home include single responses only.

In Sylvan Lake, 94.2% of the population reported English only as mother tongue, 1.5% reported French only, and 3.6% reported a non-official language only, in 2011. In comparison, the provincial / territorial percentages were 77.0% for English only, 1.9% for French only and 19.4% for only non-official languages.

In 2011, 98.0% of the population spoke only English most often at home, 0.4% spoke only French and 1.1% spoke only a non-official language. In comparison, the provincial / territorial percentages were 85.7% for only English, 0.7% for only French and 10.5% for only a non-official language.

Table 12 Sylvan Lake, T – Mother tongue and language spoken most often at home, 2011 Census
Selected languages	Mother tongue		Language spoken most often at home
Selected languages	number	%	number	%
Total	12,210	100.0	12,205	100.0
English	11,505	94.2	11,960	98.0
French	180	1.5	45	0.4
Non-official language	445	3.6	130	1.1
Multiple responses	75	0.6	70	0.6

Table 13 Sylvan Lake, T – Mother-tongue retention, 2011 Census
Mother tongue	Mother-tongue retention¹³ (in percentage)
Mother tongue	Total retention; language spoken at home at least on a regular basis	Complete retention; language spoken most often at home	Partial retention; language spoken at home on a regular basis
Note: Counts for mother tongue and home language include single response of a language as well as multiple responses of a language with English and/or French.
English	99.9	99.8	0.1
French	52.3	27.3	25.0
Non-official language	65.3	34.7	30.6

Sylvan Lake, T – Non-official languages

In Sylvan Lake, the three most common mother tongues were German (0.9%), Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) (0.7%) and Dutch (0.3%), in 2011. In comparison, the most common mother tongues at the provincial / territorial level were German (2.3%), Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) (1.9%) and Panjabi (Punjabi) (1.5%).

Table 14 Sylvan Lake, T – The most common non-official-language mother tongues, 2011 Census
Mother tongue	Number	Percentage of non-official language mother-tongue population	Percentage of total population
Note: Counts for mother tongue and home language include single response of a language as well as multiple responses of a language with English and/or French.
German	110	22.4	0.9
Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino)	85	17.3	0.7
Dutch	40	8.2	0.3
Spanish	40	8.2	0.3
Ukrainian	30	6.1	0.2

Sylvan Lake, T – Bilingualism

Table 15 Sylvan Lake, T – Rate of English-French bilingualism by mother tongue and age groups, 2011 Census
Age groups	Mother tongue
Age groups	Total	English	French	Non-official language
Note: Counts for mother tongue include single responses only. Consequently, the total excludes multiple responses.
Total	6.2	5.0	86.5	5.6
0 to 19	8.7	8.2	80.0	7.7
20 to 44	6.0	4.5	93.3	5.7
45 to 64	4.0	2.0	91.7	7.4
65 and over	2.9	0.9	50.0	0.0

Table 16 Sylvan Lake, T – Knowledge of official languages, 2011 Census
Knowledge of official languages	Number	Percentage
Total	12,210	100.0
English only	11,420	93.5
French only	5	0.0
English and French	780	6.4
Neither English nor French	5	0.0

Symbols:

···: not applicable
†: excludes census data for one or more incompletely enumerated Indian reserves or Indian settlements. For further information, refer to Notes.
¶: incompletely enumerated Indian reserve or Indian settlement. For further information, refer to Notes.
A: adjusted figure due to boundary change. For further information, refer to Content considerations.
E: use with caution. For further information, refer to Cautionary note.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Sylvan Lake T (Alberta) – This census subdivision has the following data quality indicators (commonly referred to as data quality flags):

2006 adjusted count; most of these are the result of boundary changes.

Return to footnote 1 referrer

Footnote 2

Median age: Age 'x' that divides a population in two groups of the same population size, one group being older than age 'x' and the other group being younger than age 'x'.

Return to footnote 2 referrer

Footnote 3

Census family: Refers to a married couple (with or without children), a common-law couple (with or without children) or a lone parent family.

Return to footnote 3 referrer

Footnote 4

Household, private: Refers to a person or a group of persons (other than foreign residents) who occupy a private dwelling and do not have a usual place of residence elsewhere in Canada.

Return to footnote 4 referrer

Footnote 5

Household type: Refers to the basic division of private households into family and non-family households. Family household refers to a household that contains at least one census family, that is, a married couple with or without children, or a couple living in common-law with or without children or a lone parent living with one or more children.

Return to footnote 5 referrer

Footnote 6

Couple-family households with children: Refers to couple households with at least one child aged 24 and under.

Return to footnote 6 referrer

Footnote 7

Couple-family households without children: Refers to couple households without children aged 24 and under. Includes couple households with all children aged 25 and over.

Return to footnote 7 referrer

Footnote 8

Lone-parent-family households: Refers to all lone-parent family households regardless of age of children.

Return to footnote 8 referrer

Footnote 9

Multiple-family households: Refers to a household in which two or more census families (with or without additional persons) occupy the same private dwelling.

Return to footnote 9 referrer

Footnote 10

Other households: Refers to two or more people who share a private dwelling, but who do not constitute a census family.

Return to footnote 10 referrer

Footnote 11

Other single-attached house: A single dwelling that is attached to another building and that does not fall into any of the other categories, such as a single dwelling attached to a non-residential structure (e.g., a store or a church) or occasionally to another residential structure (e.g., an apartment building).

Return to footnote 11 referrer

Footnote 12

Movable dwelling includes mobile homes and other movable dwellings such as houseboats and railroad cars.

Return to footnote 12 referrer

Footnote 13

Mother-tongue retention: Retention refers to the situation where people speak their mother tongue at home. Retention is defined as 'complete' when the mother tongue is the language spoken most often and 'partial' when it is spoken on a regular basis but not most often. The (complete or partial) retention rate refers to the proportion of the population with a given mother tongue that speaks that language at home most often or on a regular basis. The retention rate provides an indication of a group's linguistic vitality, particularly the importance of transmitting languages between generations.

Return to footnote 13 referrer

Source:

Statistics Canada. 2012. Focus on Geography Series, 2011 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98-310-XWE2011004. Ottawa, Ontario. Analytical products, 2011 Census. Last updated October 24, 2012.

Related data:

2011 Census Topic-based tabulations – Census subdivision of Sylvan Lake, Town - Alberta
2011 Census Highlight tables – Census subdivision of Sylvan Lake, Town - Alberta
2011 Census Data Navigator – Census subdivision of Sylvan Lake, Town - Alberta
2011 NHS Focus on Geography Series – Census subdivision of Sylvan Lake, Town - Alberta

Date modified:: 2019-03-27

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Focus on Geography Series, 2011 Census