As of May 15, 2001, Canada's labour force consisted of almost 15.6 million people, up 9.5% from 14.2 million a decade earlier. Of the 15.6 million people in the labour force, more than 2.5 million were in highly skilled occupations that normally required university education. This was a 33% increase from 1991, triple the rate of growth for the labour force as a whole. The map shows by census division the percentage of the population employed in natural and applied sciences and related occupations.