Population growth in Greater Kelowna fell to its slowest rate in more than a decade, putting Kelowna as the 19th fastest-growing city in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Statistics Canada figures compiled by real estate analysis firm, the Rennie Report, show that Kelowna has fallen far down the ranks in the list of 41 census metropolitan areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a far cry from a few years ago when, in 2022, Kelowna was crowned the fastest-growing city in Canada, with the 2021 census saying it had grown 14%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the situation changed and in 2025, Kelowna expanded its population by 2,957 to 254,605, a 1.2% increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNotably, this was the smallest absolute increase in Kelowna\u2019s population since 2012 and the lowest in percentage terms since 2002,\u201d the Rennie Report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report says out of the almost 3,000 new residents, 2,179 came from domestic migration, 1,108 from international migration, and the region experienced a natural decline of 330 more deaths than births.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kelowna also saw a huge downturn in out-of-province migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report says Kelowna added just 646 people from other provinces and territories in 2025, a 70% decline from the 10-year average. Ordinarily, on average, almost 2,200 people a year move to the city from other provinces across Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDomestic migration has historically been the region\u2019s main population driver, and changes in migratory patterns there have arguably been the bigger constraint on growth,\u201d the report reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Migration within the province held steady, only seeing a 7% drop from the decade average. The report says 1,533 people moved from other parts of BC to Kelowna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report highlights that changes to national immigration policy in late 2024 have had sweeping affects across the country and the number of non-permanent residents in Canada has already declined by 300,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, this disproportionately inpacted Canada\u2019s largest urban centres and had less of an impact on Kelowna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe more critical factor in Kelowna lies within our own borders, with a more sustainable growth path hinging on both the region\u2019s and the province\u2019s ability to restore their historical appeal to domestic migrants,\u201d the Rennie Report reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nationwide the fastest growing census metropolitan area was Edmonton at 3.1%, followed by Moncton at 3%, Calgary at 2.9%, and Chilliwack at 2.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In contrast, Montreal grew by just 0.5%, Vancouver at 0.2% and Toronto declined by 0.01%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s a far cry from a few years ago, when Kelowna was the fastest growing in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":7834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"","source":"","byline":"","published":"","updated":"","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1680,541,543],"tags":[],"region":[322,323,324,325],"class_list":["post-7833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local","category-topnews","region-kamloops","region-kelowna","region-penticton","region-vernon"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"post_modified":"2026-02-18T10:20:09","post_modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T18:20:09","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/inhome-Screenshot_29-12-2025_114633_www.youtube.com_.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7833"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inhome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=7833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}