Ward 3, the domain of Ald. Jim Stevenson, had the largest population growth in the last 12 months, while Ward 9, patrolled by Ald. Joe Ceci, experienced the largest decline.

I can’t say whether the aldermen were responsible for the population shifts in their wards, but it’s just a bit of the many fun facts and figures to be found in the City of Calgary census for 2008/2009, released last week.

Here are a few of the highlights.

Who’s on the move?

Net migration — the difference between the number of people moving into Calgary and the number moving away — from April 2008 to April 2009 was 12,920.

Despite the economic downturn, it’s 479 more people than last year’s net migration and when combined with the natural increase — the excess of births over deaths — of 9,643, Calgary’s population at the end of April was up 22,563 people to 1,065,455.

By the way, Ward 3 grew to 105,675 people, an increase of 6,598 and the only ward with more than 100,000 residents, while Ward 9 decreased by 471 people to 62,097.

Where would you like to live?

Ten communities had population increases of more than 1,000: Auburn Bay, Bridlewood, Cranston, Evergreen, New Brighton, Panorama Hills, Saddle Ridge, Silverado, Taradale and Tuscany.

Panorama had the largest increase in population — 2,156. Collectively, they grew by 12,898 people, only 22 less than the total net migration, and if you’ll notice, all 10 communities are new, developing communities.

Who’s crying the blues?

Nine inner-city neighbourhoods had population declines. So much for claims Calgarians are buying into the social engineering of Plan It Calgary.

Who’s crying now?

All that gnashing of teeth and denial of reality you hear is coming from Plan It Calgary with the realization Calgarians prefer buying new, single-family homes in the suburbs.

Hopefully those noises will be replaced by the sounds of ripping paper, as Plan It is torn to shreds in favour of a plan for the people by the people.

You want houses? We got houses.

Calgary home builders added 5,666 units to the existing housing stock, bringing the number of dwellings in the city to 438,663, of which 8,873 were under construction.

There are now 409,881 occupied dwellings in the city, of which 291,698 are owner occupied.

The number of vacant dwellings also increased, from 9,199 in 2008 to 13,012.

Who needs schools? We do.

Between 2003 and 2009, 82,205 children were born in Calgary and, from what I’ve seen, there’s a whole lot more on the way.

Who’s working for the weekend?

These figures are from the 2006 census, because the city only asks employment questions every five years, but three years ago there were 814,720 Calgarians aged 15 or older and of those, 574,655 had full or part-time jobs.

Who’s getting lucky?

If you’re a male 65 or older, you have a better chance to get a date than younger fellas. The 65-plus demo is the only one where women outnumber men in the city.

Where have all the people gone?

The northeast communities of North Airways and Sunridge each lost 100% of their populations and before you wonder what happened, the answer may be on the Horizon.

Horizon is a community that borders both of the losers and it had a population increase of 369% and it appears it swallowed up its neighbours.

There’s a bunch of other information in the census and the bottom line is it’s good news for Calgarians, proof our city is attractive and people want to live here.

Calgary, we’re good to grow.