There were 637 fewer people living in the City of Prince George in 2014 than there were the year before according to the latest estimates from BC Stats.
The city's population declined by 0.9 per cent to 73,590. The drop of 637 people was the largest decline among the province's municipalities.
Conversely, Fort St. John was the second-fastest growing, increasing by 4.7 per cent or 970 people to 21,523. At 5.6 per cent, Lake Country, in the Central Okanagan, was the fastest growing in terms of per cent.
Prince Rupert, Smithers and Terrace had the fastest rates of decline at -2.9, -2.7 and -1.7 per cent respectively. Their populations stood at 11,918, 5,103 and 5,701 in 2014.
Among other municipalities within the Fraser-Fort George Regional District, Mackenzie and McBride saw increases. Mackenzie grew by 0.7 per cent to 3,538 and McBride grew 0.5 per cent to 585.
Valemount declined 1.2 per cent to 1,021 and the unincorporated areas grew by 0.5 per cent to 14,911.
The FFGRD as a whole shrank by 0.6 per cent to 93,645.
In the Bulkley-Nechako Regional District, Vanderhoof's population decreased by 1.5 per cent to 4,539, Fort St. James grew by 0.9 per cent to 1,808, Burns Lake's declined by 1.3 per cent to 1,999, Fraser Lake's grew by 1.2 per cent to 1,171, Houston's declined by 0.5 per cent to 3,142, Granisle's declined by one per cent to 304 and Telkwa's declined by 0.5 per cent to 1,377.
In the unincorporated areas, the BVRD's population grew by 2.7 per cent to 20,944 and overall, that regional district's population grew by 0.8 per cent to 40,387.
In the Cariboo Regional District, Quesnel's population grew 0.1 per cent to 9,806, Wells' held steady at 234, Williams Lake's grew 0.5 per cent to 11,003 and 100 Mile House's grew 0.3 per cent to 1,889.
For the unincorporated areas, there was a 0.4 per cent increase to 40,179 and overall the Cariboo Regional District's population rose 0.4 per cent to 63,111.
In the Peace River Regional District, Dawson Creek's population grew by three per cent to 12,653, Chetwynd's grew 0.6 per cent to 2,793, Tumbler Ridge's grew three per cent to 2,983, Hudson Hope's declined by 0.3 per cent to 1,037, Taylors declined by 0.9 per cent to 1,490 and Pouce Coupe's declined by 1.4 per cent to 726.
Population in the unincorporated areas grew by 1.9 per cent to 23,116 and the total population in the PRRD grew by 2.9 per cent to 66,321.
The estimates were issued on Jan. 15.
