Abbotsford surpassed a significant population milestone last year.
The city’s population surged past 150,000 sometime early in 2018, according to BC Stats.
Abbotsford had 151,923 residents as of the end of the year, the provincial agency says. At the start of the year, the city’s official population had been 149,768 – just shy of the 150,000 mark. The city has added a little more than 2,000 in each of the last four years. Annual growth rates have been around 1.5 per cent over that time period.
That figure mirrors population growth across the Fraser Valley and the entire Lower Mainland. It also significantly exceeds BC Stats’ projections for the city’s growth. Those online projections predict about one per cent annual population increase.
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If the city’s population continues to grow at a 1.5-per-cent annual clip, Abbotsford would welcome its 200,000th resident sometime in 2038.
A slower average rate of growth of one per cent would see the city surpass that milestone nearly a decade later in 2047.
The 200,000 figures is of particular importance because Abbotsford’s current plans for growth envision a city of that size.
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