New Nelson Residents Attracted by Lifestyle, Natural Beauty, and Family Ties

New Nelson Residents Attracted by Lifestyle, Natural Beauty, and Family Ties
July 27th, 2007

According to Nelson’s 2006 New Resident Survey , 241 households representing 533 individuals moved to Nelson and area in the year ending May 31, 2007 – a figure that increased 28% over last year, but decreased by 8% over a twelve year average. Nelson’s Welcome Wagon distributes the surveys, which are then gathered and analyzed by Community Futures of Central Kootenay.

British Columbia remains the largest source of new Nelson residents, attracting 45% of the survey participants for 2007. However, this figure dropped significantly from its ten-year high of 71% in 2001. The top B.C. sources for new Nelson residents this year were Vancouver (18 families), and Kelowna (10).

Nelson attracted the same percentage of Albertans as last year (45 new households, 19% of new residents), with most families coming from Calgary (22 new families), and Edmonton (9).

Other Canadian sources included Quebec (7 new households), Saskatchewan (6), and at least one from the Northwest Territories the Yukon, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, PEI, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.

Twelve percent of Nelson’s new residents came from outside the country—a number that has gradually increased over the past decade.

From the United States, Nelson drew in 10 families, compared to 12 in 2006 and 19 in 2005.

New residents relocated to Nelson from England, Scotland, Korea, New Zealand, and Australia. And Nelson received its first-ever new residents from Guatemala, Libya, and the Falkland Islands.

How did new the new residents find out about Nelson? Most learned about the area through family and friends (116 or 48%), and 67 families (28%) had either vacationed here or drove through. This year saw a sharp increase in people returning here: 37 families said they had lived in Nelson before—a 33% increase over previous years. The survey also reveals that 32 families moved to Nelson because they lived nearby. This is a trend that has gradually increased over the years. This year, 18 families moved to Nelson from other places in the West Kootenay.

What were the decisive factors that drew families, students and entrepreneurs to the Nelson community?

According to the 2007 New Resident Survey, 140 (57%) Nelson newcomers moved to the area for a lifestyle change, up from 40% last year. Family ties showed a significant increase also: 56 new residents (23%) moved here to be near family, up from 13% last year. The scenery and weather accounted for 78 responses.

The number of people who moved here to retire or semi-retire doubled this year over 2006: 17 new residents (7% of respondents), compared to 9 last year, and up significantly from previous years when only about 4 in 100 were moving here to retire or semi-retire. And the entrepreneurial spirit is on the rise: 24 (10% of respondents) moved here to start a business, more than double last year, and almost equaling the number that moved here to seek employment (27 respondents). 59 respondents (24%) moved here for a job opportunity or transfer.

Prior to moving to the Central Kootenay area, more than half of Nelson’s new residents had seen promotional material. Of those, half indicated that they used the internet to find out about Nelson – a trend that has grown rapidly over the past decade. Similar to last year, the second highest source for promo material was cited as the movie ‘Roxanne’ (22%).

Nearly all respondents (96%) stated that they had favourable expectations of Nelson which were satisfied after their arrival.

New Nelson residents who participated in the New Resident Survey also had the opportunity to give suggestions about how Nelson could be a better place to live and work.

The most common recommendations made by Nelson’s new residents were more affordable housing/rental costs (16 respondents), better recycling (15), change dog law (10), improve street signs and traffic lights (7) and improve hospital service (7).

When asked what retail or business services they would like to see in the Central Kootenays, top responses included Tim Horton’s (8), and TD Bank (6 responses). Sixty-five respondents said they were satisfied with the businesses that exist here now, and 8 said they appreciate the fact that the number of franchise businesses is small.

The New Resident Survey has been sponsored by Community Futures of Central Kootenay and distributed by the Nelson & District Welcome Wagon Committee for more than 10 years. People who move into the Nelson area (includes Proctor, Balfour, 10 miles south of Nelson, and South Slocan) each year are contacted. The results of these surveys are compiled yearly by Community Futures and circulated to other agencies and Municipal and Regional governments.

For more information contact Mike Stolte at the Centre for Innovative & Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL – www.theCIEL.com), who compiles & analyzes the surveys for Community Futures, at (250) 352-1933 (x106) or e-mail mstolte@theCIEL.com.

Added on September 10th, 2007

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