Edna-Star Colony - Recent Demographics

Recent Demographics

Today the area known as the Kalyna Country ecomuseum, which preserves and showcases Ukrainian Canadian culture. It is also home to the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village which contains pioneer buildings from all across the area.

At one time within the boundaries of the settlement block, up to 80% of the population was of Ukrainian origin. However, internal migration in Canada has changed the patterns. As well since Statistics Canada has allowed people to claim "Canadian" as an ethnic origin only since 2001, figures are not comparable before and after that date.

According to the 2006 Census, in Census Division 10 there were 6,700 people who claimed to be single-origin Ukrainian (the largest of any ethnic group, excluding "Canadian") and 17,130 people who claimed some Ukrainian origin out of a total population of 85,155, giving approximately 20% of the population. In Division 12 there were 3,575 who claimed to be Ukrainian single-origin and 11,220 total claiming some Ukrainian origin out of 59,305, for around 19% of the population.

Ethnic origin statistics are not available for many of the counties, towns, and villages with the most concentrated Ukrainian populations, because Statistics Canada does not publish this information for communities with a total population of less than 5,000 for privacy reasons. Rural-to-urban migration has reduced the populations of Lamont, Thorhild, Two Hills, and Minburn counties below this threshold. The counties for which there are statistics that have the highest proportions of total respondents claiming some Ukrainian origin are St. Paul (26%), Sturgeon (18%), Beaver (16%), Bonnyville (17%), and Vermilion River (16%).

Other than Ukrainians, the largest responses in this area are French (especially near Bonnyville and St. Paul), German (especially near Josephburgh), Native Indian, and Metis, with smaller number of English, Scottish, and Irish, and some Romanian, Polish, Russian, Jewish, and Norwegian.

In the three largest towns in the region the percentage of the population claiming some Ukrainian origin were: Vegreville 44%, 5,720; St. Paul, 31%, and Bonnyville, 18%. Other towns and villages thought to have large Ukrainian populations include Myrnam, Willingdon, Lamont, Mundare, Andrew, Chipman, plus numerous hamlets and rural communities.

See also: List of Canadian place names of Ukrainian origin