The population of Canby swelled by more than 2,300 souls between 2010 and 2020, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The official population of Canby on April 1, 2020, was 18,171 — up from the mark of 15,829 a decade prior — according to the 2020 Census.
The 15% increase outpaced the statewide mark of 10.6%, from 3.83 million to 4,237,256, but was much slower than some of Canby’s peer cities in Clackamas County.
Oregon City grew by 18%, from 31,859 to 37,572. The increase spurred the county seat past McMinnville to No. 17 on the list of Oregon’s largest cities (Canby came in at No. 38, between Lebanon and Oak Grove).
Neighboring Auroura, which logged 1,133 residents in 2020 (up from 918 in 2010) is in no danger of catching Canby anytime soon — but just give it a couple of centuries. Its growth rate was a healthy 23%.
Molalla’s population ballooned 26%, from 8,109 to 10,228 last year, while Wilsonville’s was an explosive 37%, from 19,509 to 26,664.
If those numbers seem eye-popping, they are dwarfed by still other parts of the state that grew far faster.
Most of the communities at the top of the growth charts were tiny towns where even slight increases would show up big in the percentage column (the most dramatic of this being unincorporated Tetherow, outside Bend, where the construction of a new luxury resort ballooned the area population from 45 to 811, a 1,702% jump.)
One outlier to this was suburban Happy Valley, Oregon’s 27th-largest city, which gained nearly 10,000 new citizens between 2010 and 2020 — a 71% increase that was the state’s fifth-largest growth rate.
Of course, not all of Oregon’s cities and towns grew in the last decade. Some of the biggest losers were Cannon Beach, which shrank from 1,690 to 1,489, a 12% drop, Canyonville (-13%), Warm Springs (-17%), Sheridan (-24%) and Roseburg North, which lost more than a quarter of its population (26%), from 5,912 to 4,375.
Though they grew at different rates, the list of Oregon’s top five largest cities remained static over the decade: Portland, 583,776 to 652,503 (12%); Eugene, 156,185 to 176,654 (13%); Salem, 154,637 to 175,535 (14%); Gresham, 105,594 to 114,247 (8%) and Hillsboro, 91,611 to 106,447 (16%).
