London’s neighbors seeing population growth, too: ‘Encouraging’

London is leading the pack in population growth in the region, but it’s far from being the only community in Southwestern Ontario seeing its numbers go up.

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Woodstock, Sarnia and Chatham-Kent, among other surrounding communities, also have seen their population figures rise in the past few years, figures from Statistics Canada show.

Woodstock and Tillsonburg, in Oxford County, come up on top among smaller urban centers in Southwestern Ontario, with both communities recording growth rates of 2.6 per cent between June 30, 2023, and July 1, 2024. Their populations now sit at 52,476 and 20,039 , respectively.

That’s followed by Sarnia’s 2.1 per cent and Chatham-Kent’s one per cent.

For Sarnia, the latest figures represent an encouraging sign that efforts to attract and retain new people have been working, Mayor Mike Bradley said.

“About 10 years ago, we knew we could not grow the community by the birth rate. . . so there was a concentrated effort to bring in people, international students, immigrants,” he said.

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“It’s a bit of a cliché here, but sometimes it’s very hard to get people to come to this part of the province and to Sarnia, but once they’re here, there’s a great desire not to leave, and I think that’s reflected in those numbers, and it really is encouraging.”

For Sarnia, the latest estimate represents a big improvement after the community west of London grew by a mere 0.6 per cent between 2016 and 2021, according to the latest census.

As was the case for London, which last year grew by 3.2 per cent, immigration played a big role in bringing the numbers up in Sarnia, especially international students, said Bradley, who described his city’s pace of growth as “strategically moderate.”

“We’ve had all the impacts from the housing issue, about not having enough and more people coming in, but I would say it’s moderated and it’s manageable,” he said.

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“It’s a wonderful problem to have after a number of years where we were just struggling to keep our population.”

Announced cuts by the federal government to its immigration targets for both permanent and non-permanent residents are expected to slow population growth in the coming years.

But 2024 ended up being a busy year for Southwestern Ontario communities, according to moving trucks rental company U-Haul.

The company tracks the number of one-way moves in and out of a city to determine the net gain in moves communities are seeing. Chatham-Kent (10), St. Thomas (12), Woodstock (14) and Sarnia (21) all made U-Haul’s Top 25 growth ranking.

David Anstett, U-Haul’s marketing president for Western Ontario, said for years the London region has benefited from an influx of people moving from the Greater Toronto Area looking for more affordable housing. But some big projects, such as Amazon’s plant in Talbotville that opened last fall and the looming Volkswagen battery plant in St. Thomas, offer the prospect of economic opportunities for people, Anstett said.

“A big reason was cheaper housing, but that is not all, anymore,” he said. “People are also moving to this region because there’s the opportunity to work, to grow and also because of the lifestyle.”

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