The Yukon's population has nearly climbed back to levels not seen in a decade, rising to 33,294 residents as of June, according to the Yukon Bureau of Statistics.

In 1997, the territory's population was 33,519, but dipped as low as 29,967 in 2003.

The population figures are very much reflective of mining exploration and activity in the territory.

In 1996, exploration investment in the Yukon reached a then all-time high of $56 million, due in part to the staking rush in the Finlayson region, southeast of Faro.

When the Faro lead-zinc mine closed in early 1998, after Anvil Range Mining Corp. went bankrupt, exploration investment was already on a downward spiral and bottomed out in 2002 with just $6.9 million spent.

"After the Faro mine closed, we saw the population tail off," Gary Brown, a senior information officer for the bureau, said last week.

"And I believe it was 2003 (our population) started to increase again and it's been a pretty steady rise over the last few years."

In 2003, $13 million was spent on exploration in the Yukon, a figure that has been steadily increasing and last year eclipsed more than $100 million.

And since 2003, the Yukon's annual average population has been on the rise, climbing an average of 1.7 per cent each year.

"(The Department of) Economic Development was expecting more than 33,000 by year's and we're already there," said Brown.

"And the majority of those (new residents) are in Whitehorse."

The bureau calculates the territory's population by the number of active health care cards in circulation.

"If somebody hasn't used their card in a year, they're sent out a mailer to see if they're still living here, so it's a fairly current file," said Brown of the twice-yearly audit that the federal census references to ensure its numbers are accurate.

The last federal census in the Yukon happened in 2006 and won't occur again until 2011.