1999-2008 Percentage Growth in GDP per Capita (2002 $)

Canada's economy changed a lot between 1999 and 2009, starting with a stock market collapse that stretched from 2000 to 2002, followed by a resource-led recovery over the next few years, and ending with a world-wide recession that began in 2008.

The map Land of Opportunity showed us that GDP per capita was highest in Canada's northwestern regions in 2009, largely because a relatively low number of people are extracting great value from natural resources. By looking at this from a historical perspective, however, a slightly different pattern emerges.

Growth in GDP per capita across Canada is literally all over the map--and this is particularly pronounced across the North, whose regions posted both the highest and lowest growth rates over the past decade.

As the map and table show, economic success in the North over this period is most pronounced in Northern Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut--all of which far exceeded the national average. Yet, some of the country's slowest growth rates were seen in the Northern regions of Quebec, Ontario, and Alberta.

Note: North-South boundary line based on economic regions, rather than on census divisions as in previous maps.
Source: The Conference Board of Canada.

Methodology

GDP per capita values for 1999 (expressed in 2002 $) were subtracted from GDP per capita values for 2008 (also in 2002 $) and the difference was used to calculate percentage growth since 1999 using an Excel spreadsheet. Values were rounded to the nearest full percentage point and manually entered into a geographic information system (ArcGIS) for the 10 Northern and 10 Southern regions. Data ranges were classified as "<15 per cent," "15-25 per cent," and ">25 per cent," and then mapped and labelled for all regions. Excel's SORT function was used to rank the GDP per capita numbers for all 20 regions that appear in the table.

Please refer to the detailed Methodology section in Land of Opportunity for a description of the data and GDP per capita calculation methods used to develop this map.

About the Series

Here, the North is a bi-weekly series researched, written, and produced by The Conference Board of Canada's Centre for the North. The series is designed to illustrate similarities and differences--between Canada's North and South, and between Northern regions--in keeping with the Centre's mandate to provide policy-directed research to decision makers.

This issue of Here, the North was researched and written by Peter Wilson.