The population in North Bay was down 3.9 per cent between 2011 and 2016.

That’s according to the latest Census Data released this morning (Wednesday).

51,553 people called North Bay home in May last year.

That’s down about 2,100.

Mayor Al McDonald says the numbers are teaching the city a lesson.

He says they have more work to do.

He says the ONTC divestment and cuts at the hospital played a role in these numbers but the city has started to rebound.

McDonald cites the 2016 building permit numbers which show a big increase from the year before.

McDonald says North Bay is not alone in the north in showing decreases in population.

He says the city should be spending more money promoting itself and what it offers in the Greater Toronto area.

He says the province has to be paying more attention to the north in terms of policy and funding.

Nipissing District, meantime, was also down.

The decrease between census years was 1.9 percent to 81,150 people.

Nationally, Canada’s latest census numbers show the country’s population reached 35.2 million in 2016, an increase of 1.7 million over 2011.

That’s the strongest growth of all the G7 countries.

Today’s release is just the first of seven tranches of 2016 census data to be released by Statistics Canada over the course of 2017; the next one, to be focused on age and sex, is scheduled for May.

Here’s the local breakdown of communities in the North Bay area:

Census Data

(With files from The Canadian Press)