All four South Cariboo electoral district areas combined had an estimated 125 new immigrants between 2011 and May 2016 in the area based on the 2016 Census released in October this year. The largest number went to Cariboo electoral area H during the period of 2011-16.
“The data … was taken from a sample population and after processing data (coding, edit and imputation, etc.) the final estimates are produced and reflect the total population,” said Laura Drope, media relations officer for Statistics Canada in an email.
“These are estimates, not actual counts.”
According to the Statistics Canada website, the District of 100 Mile and Cariboo L (Lone Butte, North Green Lake, Watch Lake and Interlakes) saw a dip in immigration while Cariboo G (103 Mile to north of Lac la Hache and Hwy 97 corridor from 100 Mile to Green Lake) and Cariboo H (Forest Grove, Canim Lake and Mahood) were the opposite.
100 Mile only saw 20 new immigrants, all supposedly from India. In the previous period (06-10), 35-45 people arrived in the municipality, 15 of them from India with the remaining coming from Denmark, Colombia and an unspecified country in Africa.
Cariboo L saw a decrease of ten compared to the previous period, with 30 newcomers to the country opposed to the last census period. All 30 of them came from Europe, split between Finland, Switzerland and Ukraine. In the last period, it was split between Germany and Ukraine.
In Cariboo H, 35 immigrants chose to call the area home sometime between 2011-16 and like Cariboo L, the majority of them come from Europe (Germany) and an unspecified country in Northern Europe. Germany was also the lone contributor for the 15 immigrants reported in the area for 2006-10.
Historically, all four census regions have a heavy German presence, with 375 people from the country immigrating from the Western European country since Statistics Canada was created in 1971.
In a different census, Statistics Canada found more people across all three electoral districts and 100 Mile House reported German as their mother tongue or spoken at home than any other language except English. A combined 610 people reported the language as their mother tongue with the most (270) coming from Cariboo L. In addition, 215 people across the four areas reported speaking it at home.
British Columbia, as a whole, saw an estimated 175,545 immigrants come into the country this census period, a raise from last period’s 173,490. Out of all countries, the most came from China with 38,100, which actually dipped from the 40,645 in 2006-10. As far as South Cariboo goes, Statistics Canada only reported 15 Chinese people made it their home but between 2001-05.
