Canada's capital region continues to grow at a pace surpassing most other Ontario cities, according to the 2011 census data.

While Ontario's population growth slowed to the lowest level since the mid 1980s, Ottawa-Gatineau and Kingston were two of four areas whose level of growth increased from 2006.

Ottawa and Gatineau together grew 9.1 per cent to 1,236,324 people, compared to 5.9 per cent growth in the last census.

Jaffer Matovo and Ismail Kizito said they both immigrated to Ottawa from Uganda to work.

"There are more opportunities in the capital than anywhere else," said Matovo. "I've moved around the country, I've been to Yellowknife, I've gone to Toronto, Alberta and all but Ottawa is the best."

Statistics Canada said people like Matovo and Kizito are examples of the people who are expanding the capital's population.

"There's still people moving to the area from other parts of the country but the two main sources were natural growth and immigration from outside," said Marc Hamel.

The biggest areas of Ottawa's growth were in South Nepean and Barrhaven.

"The general tendency we observed is that people are moving away from what we call the 'urban core' and they go to surrounding municipalities," Hamel said.

Kingston's results showed a population of 123,363, a 5.3 per cent growth that more than doubled that rate from five years before.

Ontario's growth rate dipped to 5.7 per cent, down from 6.6 per cent in 2006.

Toronto and Brantford are the other two areas whose growth rate improved.

Gatineau grew at a rate that surpassed Quebec as a whole – 9.6 per cent in the latest census compared to 4.7 per cent between 2006 and 2011.

More people living west of Ontario than east of it 

Canada's results show there are more people living in the western provinces (from Manitoba to B.C.) than the eastern ones (which doesn't include Ontario) for the first time.

The four western provinces make up 30.7 per cent of the population, while the five eastern ones have 30.6 per cent.

Statistics Canada said mining and forestry in the east suffered because of the recession, while the energy industry in the west stayed relatively strong.

Calgary and Edmonton were the two fastest-growing cities, with Milton, Ont. as the fastest-growing municipality at 56 per cent.

Canada's population was officially counted as 33,476,688.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Karen Soloman