Demographics of Northwest Territories

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Northwest Territories is a territory of Canada. It has an area of 1,171,918 square kilometres and a population of 41,861 as of July 1, 2006.

1 Population of Northwest Territories since 1871
2 Ten largest population centres
3 Language
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Population of Northwest Territories since 1871

Year	Population	five-year % change	ten-year % change	Rank among provinces and territories
1871	48,000	n/a	n/a	6
1881	56,446	n/a	17.6	7
1891	98,967	n/a	75.3	7
1901	20,129*	n/a	-79.7	11
1911	6,507**	n/a	-67.7	11
1921	8,143	n/a	25.1	10
1931	9,316	n/a	14.4	10
1941	12,028	n/a	29.1	10
1951	16,004	n/a	33.1	11
1956	19,313	20.7	n/a	11
1961	22,998	19.1	43.7	11
1966	28,738	25.0	48.8	11
1971	34,805	21.1	51.3	11
1976	42,610	22.4	48.3	11
1981	45,740	7.3	31.4	11
1986	52,235	14.2	22.6	11
1991	57,649	10.3	26.0	11
1996	64,402	11.7	23.2	11
2001	37,360***	-42.0	-35.2	11
2006	41,861****	12.0	-35.0	11

*Note: Yukon territory was ceded from Northwest Territories in 1898.

**Note: Alberta and Saskatchewan were created from parts of Northwest Territories in 1905.

***Note: Data through 1996 includes Nunavut. 2001 data does not include Nunavut.

****Note: Preliminary 2006 census estimate.

Source: Statistics Canada ^[1]^[2]

[edit] Ten largest population centres

Ten largest municipalities by population
Municipality	2001	1996
Yellowknife	16,541	17,275
Hay River	3,510	3,611
Inuvik	2,894	3,296
Fort Smith	2,185	2,441
Behchoko	1,552	1,662
Fort Simpson	1,163	1,257
Tuktoyaktuk	930	943
Fort McPherson	761	878
Fort Providence	753	748
Norman Wells	666	798

[edit] Language

French was made an official language in 1877 by the appointed government, after lengthy and bitter debate resulting from a speech from the throne in 1888 by Lt. Governor Joseph Royal. The members voted on more than one occasion to nullify and make English the only language used in the assembly. After some conflict with Ottawa and a decisive vote on January 19, 1892, the issue was put to rest as an English-only territory.

In the early 1980s, the government of Northwest Territories was again under pressure by the federal government to reintroduce French as an official language. Some native members walked out of the assembly, protesting that they would not be permitted to speak their own language. The executive council appointed a special committee of MLAs to study the matter. They decided that if French was to be an official language, then so must the other languages in the territories.

The Northwest Territories's Official Languages Act recognizes the following eleven official languages, which is more than any other political division in Canada^[3]:

NWT residents have a right to use any of the above languages in a territorial court and in debates and proceedings of the legislature. However, laws are legally binding only in their French and English versions, and the government only publishes laws and other documents in the territory's other official languages when the legislature asks it to. Furthermore, access to services in any language is limited to institutions and circumstances where there is significant demand for that language or where it is reasonable to expect it given the nature of the services requested. In reality, this means that English language services are universally available and there is no guarantee that other languages, including French, will be used by any particular government service except for the courts.