Image Credit: UNSPASH

Kamloops and the Okanagan had some of the fastest growth rates in the country during the last census period but that’s not reflected in most of their school districts.

The Central Okanagan, which Statistics Canada calls Kelowna Census Metropolitan Area, is the one place in the region where school and general population boundaries match.

From 2016 to 2021 the region was the fastest growing major metropolitan area in the country at 14%, yet the number of students attending Central Okanagan School District #23 for the 2021/2022 school year only went up by 9.6% from the 2016/2017 school year.

The rest of the Okanagan-Shuswap is made up of four other school districts but only two major cities, Vernon and Penticton.

The City of Vernon’s population grew by 11% but Vernon School District #22 only grew by 5.2%.

The Vernon School District includes Coldstream (population growth rate 4.9%), Lumby (growth rate 12.5%) and rural areas, which complicates the picture.

Penticton’s population saw a 9.3% increase while Okanagan Skaha School District #67 enrolment actually fell by 1.3%. That school district includes Summerland (grew by 3.7%) and unincorporated areas like Naramata and Kaleden.

It was a different picture in Kamloops, which grew by 8.4% while Kamloops-Thompson School District #73 outpaced it with an 10% growth rate.

That district stretches from Logan Lake (growth rate of 13.1%) to Chase (up 4.9%) north to Sun Peaks (grew by 127.9%), Barriere (up 3%) Clearwater (up 2.8%) through to the rural area north of the unincorporated Blue River.

As for the other school districts in the region, Okanagan Similkameen School District #53 grew by 3.7%, while North Okanagan Shuswap School District #83 grew by 1.3%.

In real terms, the number of students went up in most districts with the larger Central Okanagan adding 2,127 while Kamloops-Thompson saw 1,438 more students. Vernon was up by 439 students while Okanagan Skaha was down by 73.

The reason for the differences between population growth and school enrolment is largely due to an aging population.

The average age in all the major cities went up from 2016 to 2021 while the percentage of children dropped.

Penticton had the highest average age in 2021 at 48.9 years followed by Vernon at 47.2, Central Okanagan at 44.2 and Kamloops at 42.4.

READ MORE: Sun Peaks, Lake Country and Kelowna fastest growing communities in Thompson-Okanagan

Statistics Canada breaks major age categories down to 0 to 14, 15 to 64 and over 65 years.

Penticton had the lowest ratio of children with only 11.9% of its population aged 0 to 14, the same as in 2016.

The other cities saw a drop in the 0 to 14 age group of 0.4-0.6%. Vernon came in at 13.5%, Central Okanagan at 13.8% and Kamloops at 15.1% in the 0 to 14 age group.

At the other end of the spectrum, each city saw the percentage of its residents who were 65 or older grow during the census period.

Penticton had the highest ratio of seniors at 30.3% followed by Vernon at 28.1%, the Central Okanagan at 22.6% and Kamloops at 20.1%.

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