Calgary's geographic expansion, of course, is related directly to population growth. This graph shows the extent and nature of this population at twenty year intervals beginning in 1911. The first date measures the city's population near the end of the prairie settlement boom. Steady but modest growth continued to 1951 by which time a new boom, generated by a petroleum-based economy, was under way. The continued preponderance of the British-Canadian population also is apparent in the graph. Reflecting the British predominance of southern Alberta, from which it has attracted much of its new population, Calgary's foreign-born non-English speaking population has remained relatively small. This ethnic structure is further reinforced by the fact that employers in petroleum-related enterprises did not recruit a factory labour force. In this regard, Calgary stands in some contrast to other major cities of the prairie West.
