The Town of Okotoks has seen plenty of growth in recent years and after being the third fastest growing 'small urban' area in the country, the numbers don't lie.

In the 2016 Federal Census Alberta's largest town grew by 17.4% from 2011 to 2016 from 24,511 to now 28,881 Okotokians.

Mayor Bill Robertson says that number is now over 29,000 people.

"Okotoks growing to 28,800 plus is significant growth over the last five years," he says. "Of course that was up till May of last year, since then I expect we've had another 2.5 percent growth which is a very conservative estimate."

The numbers by the federal government show that there has been a little bit of a slow down when it comes to growth in town but Robertson says in that time, Okotoks has been catching up in building much needed infrastructure.

"It's a desirable community, we have great people here. People want to come here, they enjoy it and word gets around that we certainly have many amenities that other communities envy so I guess it's expected we have that population growth."

Robertson says the opportunities that arise in Okotoks whether it's recreation, businesses or residential has been key for the town's success.

"What I've noticed is that we have so many great businesses in town, there are very few things that Okotoks residents have to leave the community to go and access. So we're getting new businesses all the time and to serve our residents we're definitely a self contained community."

Statistics Canada will have more demographic information for each municipality on May 3, 2017.

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