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Halifacts

Want to know more amazing things about Halifax? We’ve got all the Halifacts you need.


	Halifax is undeniably an educated city. With 6 universities and three community college campuses enrolling over 34,000 students each year, Halifax has a young and vibrant culture. Over the past few years, the number of university students in Halifax has increased significantly, leading to more talent, a deeper labour pool, and a more educated workforce. In the last census, Statistics Canada noted that 67% of the working population had a trade, college, or university qualification, making Halifax one of the most educated cities in Canada. Halifax is an attractive place for students and with new prospects on the horizon this is definitely a place they can put down roots.

	The Conference Board of Canada predicts there will be another 14,000 jobs in Halifax over the next four years; and that was before they heard the Shipbuilding news! With $25 billion dollars being invested in creating a Shipbuilding Centre of Excellence, Halifax is poised to be a hotbed of economic activity. New jobs on the horizon, new prospects for growth, and a community that’s rallying around the growing abundance of economic opportunities will all help Halifax grow as a city and as a economic hub for Atlantic Canada.

	Over the next four years, Halifax is expecting 15,000 new residents. Halifax is a growing city and a great place to live - FDI Magazine’s 2010/11 rankings placed Halifax 1^st for quality of life and 2^nd for Large Cities of the Future across North America. With job opportunities, an excellent quality of life, and affordable prices, more people are seeing the value of living in Halifax.

Want to know more? Here are 20 other interesting Halifacts:

Halifax represents 45% of Nova Scotia’s population and 17% of the people in Atlantic Canada.
Halifax’s population has grown by 5% in the past four years, representing over 18,500 new residents in the city.
Halifax is the economic heart of Atlantic Canada, generating 19% of the region’s economic output.
Halifax continued to grow through the recession with positive GDP and employment growth in every year of the financial crisis and recovery period.
In addition to the 30,000 university students already here, there are an additional 4,000 students attending Halifax’s three Nova Scotia Community College campuses.
Halifax is an attractive city for students; we have roughly 81 post secondary students per 1,000 people, 3X the national average.
There are more than 4,000 international students attending university in Halifax. And, they add an estimated $231 million dollars to the provincial economy.
Halifax has one of the largest concentrations of health care facilities and specialists in Canada, including the Dalhousie University Medical School. The school is ranked #1 outside of the US and #4 in the world as the best universities for postdoctoral fellows.
Halifax supports more than $31 billion in major projects and developments, most notably the Halifax Shipyard’s $25 billion contract to build a fleet of combat vessels for the Canadian Navy over the next 30 years.
KPMG’s Competitive Alternatives ranks Halifax 5^th out of 77 international cities in terms of the cost of doing business and 3^rd within the North American cities. They also say Halifax has one of the most competitive office rental markets in the country.
The Class A rental rate in Halifax is $17.17 per square foot, 15% lower than the national average.
The Halifax Regional Municipality is committed to sustainable development and earned Milestone 5 recognition from the Partners for Climate Protection Program for planning, measuring, and implementing a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Downtown Halifax has an extremely stable power supply with a System Average Interruption Index of 0.98; the downtown core is, on average, without service for one hour ever year.
Halifax’s Ocean sector has a strong research & development presence with more than 600 researchers at the Bedford Institute for Oceanography, 120 at the NRC Institute for Marine Biosciences, an advanced tech centre in Dalhousie’s Aquatron Labs, and one of the highest concentrations of Marine Science PhDs in the world.
Halifax has the largest share of Department of National Defence assets in Canada and employs 10,800 personnel in the city. It is the home of 7 Halifax-class frigates, 2 Iroquois destroyers, 6 Kingston coastal vessels, 3 Victoria submarines, and the HMSC Preserver.
Halifax has the second largest concentration of financial service companies in Canada and is the regional headquarter location for all 5 of Canada’s largest banks.
From Halifax, 43% of North America’s buying power can be reached by rail within four days.
The Halifax Gateway Initiative, an alignment of transportation and logistics enterprises, directly employs 11,500 workers and generates an economic impact of $3.7 billion, annually.
Halifax’ strategic location makes it the first port of call for westbound European ships and the last port of call for eastbound North American ships. This is why the Port of Halifax is home to 2 post-Panamax container terminals and more than a million square feet of transload, distribution, and warehousing space.
The Halifax International Airport Authority handled over 3.5 million passengers last year, thus contributing over $1.2 billion to the provincial economy. The airport has been ranked 1^st in its class for seven consecutive years by Airport Service Quality’s performance report.