During the same time that Mountain View County's overall population shrank, the number of immigrants in the county dropped slightly as well.
According to Statistics Canada's National Household Survey data, there were 900 immigrants in the county at the time the survey was carried out in the spring of 2011.
That number is down from the 955 immigrants recorded in the county during the 2006 Census.
During that five-year period, the county's overall population decreased from 12,391 to 12,195.
According to the survey, the overwhelming majority of immigrants in the county came from Europe.
The largest number of immigrants are from the Netherlands at 305, followed by the United Kingdom at 295.
Immigrants from the United States totalled 105 with another 110 from other parts of the “Americas,” the survey states, and there were 25 immigrants from Africa, including 20 from South Africa.
The survey also shows the decade the county welcomed the most immigrants was between 2001 and 2011 when 250 people came to the county—185 came between 2006 and 2011 alone— whereas 150 came in the 1990s, 120 in the 1980s, 140 in the 1970s and 240 came prior to 1971.
The number of people in the county who are not Canadian citizens, however, has increased from 330 in 2006 to 450 in 2011.
Mountain View County's immigrant population is also smaller than populations in its neighbouring counties, the survey indicates.
Red Deer County, which has a population of 17,550, tallied 1,220 immigrants in 2011 and Rocky View County had 1,240 immigrants within a total population of 36,465.
But Mountain View County still has a slightly higher percentage of immigrants over Red Deer County at 7.4 per cent compared to seven per cent.
The survey was conducted in 2011 and replaced the long-form census. Critics of the survey said the statistics it provides are incomplete since it, unlike the census, is not mandatory.
The rate to which people did not respond or only partially responded to survey questions in Mountain View County was 43.3 per cent.
That rate in Red Deer County was 39 per cent and in Rocky View it was 32.3 per cent.
