There are approximately 63,676 people here, but it’s technically not a city. It’s an “urban service area” within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. If it were incorporated as a city, it would be the 5th largest in Alberta after Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer and Lethbridge. But since it’s not, Medicine Hat gets the glory.
And, there are actually even more than that if you include people living outside of the “city”. There are 63,676 in the urban service area (Fort McMurray), plus another 26,275 in the rural service area, for a grand total of 89,950. Who knew!
Of that, about 23,200 are what is known as the “shadow” population - people who work here but are not permanent residents.
Interesting hey? And the crazy part is that it could be even higher except the 2008 census was considered unofficial because they used statistical extrapolation rather than going door-to-door to count, so these numbers are actually from the 2007 census. A new census is being done this year though, so it will be interesting to see what the actual population is now. So there you have it, Ft.Mac: the unofficial 5th largest non-city city in Alberta!
If you find this sort of stuff interesting, check out Alberta’s 2009 Official Population List
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