THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA-OKANAGAN

(10% - Due in class October 20)
Carlos Teixeira
   
URBANIZATION AND POPULATION CHANGES IN KELOWNA (1996–2006)

Context:

Kelowna: A Community in Transition?

Kelowna, a mid-sized city in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, is one of the fastest-growing cities in the province. Today, urbanization, with its attendant rapid development and population growth, is defining the city’s landscape. Kelowna’s population increased from 20,000 in 1971 to 107,000 in 2006. Fifteen percent of Kelowna’s population is composed of immigrants, a proportion considerably lower than British Columbia’s overall figure of 25 percent. With a median age of 42.8 years compared with the provincial median of 40.8 years (BC Statistics, 2008), Kelowna’s population also tends to be older than the rest of the province.

The city’s rapid growth has been fuelled by migrants from other parts of British Columbia or from other Canadian provinces (e.g. Alberta) rather than by international migration. Kelowna has a distinct demographic profile—the local media have dubbed it “White-Bread Valley” — that has led many immigrants to avoid it in favour of larger, more multicultural cities like Vancouver.

Residents of Kelowna are aware that urbanization is shaping not only the social, demographic, and economic aspects of their community but also its complex real estate and housing markets. Among the most important consequences of Kelowna’s accelerated urban development and population growth is an increasing demand for housing paralleled by a lack of affordable dwellings both in the rental and homeownership markets. Over the last decade, Kelowna has established a reputation as a retirement destination for the affluent and, as a result, its real estate market has become one of the most expensive in the country. Given these factors, Kelowna has had a problem attracting and retaining newcomers. The “exodus” of Kelowna’s youth population (usually this occurs after their university studies) to major urban areas such as Vancouver and Calgary in search of jobs, is also a major concern for this region. 

Kelowna is thus an urban and social laboratory in transition, which, on the positive side, makes it an excellent site for scholarly research!

Purpose:

The primary objective of this assignment is to introduce you to population geography (see Chapter 3, Knox, Marston, and Nash, 2010) and how to access and use data sources (e.g. Census Data, Statistics Canada/BC StatsOur focus will be on issues of population growth/change, population aging, immigration, and the socio-cultural composition of Kelowna’s population.

Data Sources:

For this assignment you will rely mainly on census data published by Statistics Canada in the years 2001 and 2006. In Lab #1 (October 6 in class) Dr. Robert Janke (UBC-O Library) will provide you with information on how to locate Canadian census data at the census tract level. The data from these years will give you the opportunity to calculate the following:  population change, ethnicity, mother tongue, place of birth, gender and age structure, household size, homeownership, education, profession, household income, and occupation. Once you extract this information from the census data you will then have the necessary background information (“statistical profile”) regarding population and the changes that have occurred between 2001 and 2006 in the City of Kelowna. This information will be crucial in terms of helping you answer the main research questions of this assignment. You can also rely on other published sources (e.g. peer reviewed journals, books, reports, community profiles, magazines, articles from local newspapers). A list of recommended readings will be provided at the end of this assignment.   留学生论文代写网代写留学生论文,英国硕士论文,澳洲论文,