Yellowknife the Deh Cho Bridge, which officially opened on November 30, 2012, the city now has its first direct road connection to the rest of the country. As of the 2016 Census, there were 19,569 people and 7,130 households in the city. The population density was . The 2016 Census found that 22.7% of residents identified as Indigenous. In 2017 the Government of the Northwest Territories reported that the population was 20,834 with an average yearly growth rate of 0.6% from 2007. In Yellowknife, the population is slightly younger at 34.6 than the average age for the rest of the NWT
Yellowknife also resulted in new discoveries at the Con Mine, greatly extending the life of the mine. The Yellowknife townsite expanded from the Old Town waterfront, and the new townsite was established during 1945–1946. The Discovery Mine, with its own townsite, operated to the north-northeast of Yellowknife from 1950 to 1969. Between 1939 and 1953, Yellowknife was controlled by the Northern Affairs department (now Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada) of the Government of Canada. A small council, partially elected and partially appointed, made decisions. By 1953, Yellowknife had grown so much that it was made a municipality, with its own council