The RM of Hanover continues to be the most populated rural municipality in all of Manitoba.

New Census numbers released Wednesday give Hanover a population of 17,216 residents. Hanover grew by 10.8 per cent since the 2016 Census. In fact, Winnipeg, Brandon and Steinbach are the only three locations in Manitoba with a higher population.

umber of residents per household for Hanover in the 2016 Census, you get a population of 20,535. However, Chief Administrative Officer Luc Lahaie points out that the 5,867 is the number of dwellings as of December 31st, noting there is a chance that many of those were new homes that were not occupied by the time of the Census.

Further to that, Toews notes Hanover's average number of residents per household has dropped since the last Census. Instead of 3.5 it is now 3.25. Both of these factors could lead to the discrepancy between Hanover's projected population and the official Census.

Toews admits he was fearing the Census numbers would come in lower than the 17,216 mark. He adds for every resident that is not included in the Census, the municipality misses out on a substantial amount of funding over the course of five years. That is because some of the government funding which Hanover receives is based on per capita.