The city grew by just under 9,000 residents between 2016 and 2021 according to results from the 2021 census, released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.
Cambridge reached a population of 138,479 in 2021, up from 129,920 in 2016 and representing a growth rate of 6.6 per cent.
The growth rate comes in well behind the two other Waterloo region cities of Kitchener at 10.1 per cent and Waterloo, which saw a population spike of 15.7 per cent between the two census years.
Kitchener grew from a population of 233,222 in 2016 to 256,885 in 2021, while Waterloo grew from 104,986 in 2016 to 121,436 in 2021.
Waterloo Region's population overall is expected to reach 923,000 by 2051.
Cambridge remains ahead of the national population growth rate of 5.2 per cent, and the Ontario rate of 5.8 per cent.
Dwelling counts are also among the data released Feb. 9 by Statistics Canada and reveal the number of private dwellings in the city rose from 49,388 in 2016 to 53,013 in 2021, an increase of 7.3 per cent.
Of those private dwellings, 51,269 were occupied by usual residents, an increase of 6.3 per cent over 2016.
Cambridge now ranks as Canada’s 41st most populous city and 19th most populous city in Ontario.
Wednesday’s data release is the first stemming from the 2021 census, with another set for late April highlighting age, gender and types of dwellings.
