The disparities in the growth of mining towns fit well in what have been called the great dimensions of canadian regionalism. Indeed, these disparities can be explained primarily by two factors : age of town (period of initial settlement) and degree of diversification of economic activity. Variables associated with location thus contribute a greater proportion to the explanation of disparities in growth than those associated with general demographic, social and economic processes. The power of explanation of the above mentioned factors is greater over longer period (1941-1971), but is never greater than 49%. The addition of new economic and demographic variables for the city and for its region would reduce the proportion of unexplained variance.