Youth is on Saskatoon’s side.
The bridge city has the youngest population of any major Canadian city, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.
The average age in Saskatoon and the surrounding area is between 34 and 35, which is about five years below the national average.
Noel Erickson, owner of Freedom Functional Fitness in the city’s Riversdale neighbourhood, said the types of services offered in Saskatoon — especially downtown — are changing to accommodate the younger demographic.
Most of the fitness facility’s clients are between the ages of 20 and 40.
“With the economic growth in Saskatoon it’s really bringing in a lot of the younger working crowd. I think it’s a market that’s dying to be looked after,” said Erickson.
The Riversdale neighbourhood is a prime example of the younger population’s changing demands, he said. Clothing stores, coffee shops and new restaurants have sprouted up in the area over the last few years. Erickson opened Freedom last August.
“It’s a very young group of business owners; a lot of young entrepreneurs,” he said.
The report also showed that Saskatoon is the second-fastest growing city in Canada. The city’s 3.9 per cent population growth was just behind Calgary’s 4.3 per cent growth.
“The other significant feature of that is the region is growing as well as the city,” said City of Saskatoon director of planning and development Alan Wallace. “The cities in Saskatchewan, like Regina and Saskatoon in particular, have always grown, but it hasn’t always been the case that the region has grown around them.”
The population of Saskatoon and its surrounding area, which includes places like Corman Park and Martensville, was about 292,000 as of July 2013. Saskatoon’s population alone was above the quarter-million mark.
The city projects Saskatoon will reach a population over 500,000 people in the next 30 years.
