Yup, there are lots of ways to interpret statistics.
Just for fun, since the majority seem to be comparing Ottawa-Gatineau to Calgary, based on what the Radio-Canada site presents, I’ll give a different interpretation:
(All numbers that I use are from the data used in the Radio-Canada article, and can be found at
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/info/cod...alysis.nb.html)
In 2001, Calgary’s population was 977,810; its urban area was 427 km2; giving a density of 2,282 people per km2.
In 2001, Ottawa-Gatineau had 1,127,704 people; in an area of 380 km2; giving a density of 3,091 people per km2.
Based on that, I would say that Ottawa-Gatineau was winning the ‘density competition’ by a fair amount, in 2001.
Fast forward to 2021, and Calgary has increased its urban area by 201 km2, while Ottawa-Gatineau has only increased its urban area by 189 km2. So, Ottawa-Gatineau started smaller and increased by a smaller amount, compared to Calgary.
Well, why is Calgary being praised and Ottawa-Gatineau vilified? Because Calgary’s density increased, while Ottawa-Gatineau’s dropped.
How can that be, if Ottawa-Gatineau increased their urban area by a smaller amount? Because more people mover to Calgary than to Ottawa-Gatineau – a lot more people. Calgary’s population increased by 504,698, while Ottawa-Gatineau’s population grew by 306,644. Thus, Calgary was fortunate enough to have enough new people come there to compensate for the large growth in its urban area.
It turned out that there was something of an ‘oil boom’ during recent times. That puts money into Alberta, which attracts people. Looking at the population growth numbers: Calgary and Edmonton grew by about 50%, having the highest draw (petroleum money); Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa-Gatineau by about 27%, being quite desirable places; ‘Winter’peg, being less desirable, grew by only 19%; then there were the two Quebec-based cities, Montreal and Quebec City, which only grew by about 18% (perhaps because of the language issue); Hamilton was at the bottom of the growth list at 14% (but, having visited Hamilton, I can understand why).
I have sometimes heard people proclaim that “numbers don’t lie.” But, sometimes, they don’t tell the whole story, either. There are usually reasons behind the numbers.
Oh, and the urban density competition, even after Calgary’s gain and Ottawa-Gatineau’s decline, still goes to Ottawa-Gatineau, with a 2021 density of 2,520, over Calgary’s 2,358 people per km2.
Oh, and if you go to the website listed above, you can find interesting phenomenon; like the sudden increase in Ottawa-Gatineau’s urban size when Watson became mayor. (I will leave you to decide if it was payback for help getting elected. It may not be, since there were several cities that increased the rate of urban expansion around the same time.)