This Alberta Official Statistic compares Alberta and Canada’s population growth rates between the 1986 and 2011 Censuses of Population. Population growth is the increase (or decrease) in the number of persons in the population between two points in time as a result of natural increase and net migration. It is expressed as a percentage of the population at the beginning of the time period. In between the last six censuses, the growth rate of Alberta’s population has always exceeded the national average except between1986 and 1991. The growth rate was 10.8% between the 2006 and 2011 censuses, almost double the national growth rate (5.9%) for the same period, and 10.6% between 2001 and 2006 compared to the national average of 5.4%.