This report, published annually by Saskatchewan Health, is a count of all persons who held Saskatchewan health coverage on June 30th.

The Covered Population is not a census since it only counts persons who are registered for provincial health coverage and not every person who may have been a resident in Saskatchewan on June 30th.

All residents of Saskatchewan are included except:

• members of the Canadian Armed Forces, members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and inmates of federal prisons, all of whom are covered by the federal government; and
• people not yet meeting the residency requirement (coverage begins on the first day of the third calendar month following their move to Saskatchewan). Saskatchewan residents moving elsewhere remain eligible for coverage for the same period, and anyone whose coverage extends through June (i.e. who left the province April 1st or later) is included in the report. In the case of death, people who had coverage any time in June are included.

An error in Covered Population Report 2010 led to the some residents being incorrectly allocated into some urban centres, which incorrectly increased their 2010 population. This error was most evident in the population of the city of Saskatoon where approximately 20,000 people were allocated in error.

Other centres in the province were also allocated larger populations in 2010 to lesser degrees. The issue affected only the allocations within the province and not the 2010 provincial total. There was no double-counting.

The issue has been fixed for the Covered Population Report 2011, but it is not possible to retroactively change the 2010 numbers.

Therefore, caution should be exercised when comparing numbers between 2011 and 2010, as it could lead to incorrect conclusions about population changes (gains or losses) in Saskatchewan communities.