[1][2] Municipalities choose to conduct their own censuses for multiple reasons such as to better inform municipal service planning and provision, to capitalize on per capita based grant funding from higher levels of government, or to simply update their populations since the last federal census.

[3] Alberta had 359 municipalities between April 1 and June 30, 2012,[a] up from 358 during the same three-month period in 2011.

Chestermere, Alberta's fourth-largest town, surpassed 15,000 residents.

The following is a list of hamlet populations determined by 2012 municipal censuses conducted by Strathcona County and the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo excluding the urban service areas of Fort McMurray and Sherwood Park that are presented above.

"[3] The RM of Wood Buffalo conducted a shadow population count in 2012.