Population of Toronto (Including Census Counts)

[Juan_Lennon416]

The welcome sign on the Toronto-Pickering border says 2.7 M

 

[Chuck]

The welcome sign on the Toronto-Pickering border says 2.7 M

Toronto's stagnant population growth (overall) is nothing to worry about. In simple terms, when a new subdivision is built, the majority of homes are filled by young couples with kids. 20 years later, the kids have moved out and there's now only the 2 parents living in the same house. Whereas 50 years ago the family might have had 2-3 kids, today it's only 1-2 kids. Nothing wrong with this.

It's time to be worried when people stop buying new and resale homes altogether. In any case, in light of the above, basement apartments are great because subdivions are underutilized right now.

 

[hawc]

I figured population growth is the 'demand' side of the supply/demand equation that keeps home/condo prices rising. If the demand side starts decreasing don't real estate prices too?

 

[Jonny5]

I figured population growth is the 'demand' side of the supply/demand equation that keeps home/condo prices rising. If the demand side starts decreasing don't real estate prices too?

They did. The population growth slowing to a crawl is not a recent change, it happened it began 20 years ago and mostly played in the last decade. The population is now growing at an increasing rate, especially in the core, hence the rising prices.

 

[adma]

Heck, forget 20 years ago. It really began 40 years ago. If it weren't for Scarborough still building out into Milliken and Malvern and all of that, Metro's population would have declined in the 1970s--and the former City of Toronto saw the worst population decline in its history in that decade. But that wasn't due to Detroit/Buffalo-style decline; quite the contrary, it was a byproduct of the baby bust and gentrification. It wasn't decline decline, in other words--indeed, in some ways and places, population growth became an ironic symbol of so-called decline, as places like St James Town and Thorncliffe became superstuffed with large immigrant families...

 

[k10ery]

According to MMAH Toronto was 2,773,000 in 2010. That's up 2.8% from five years earlier. So I'd guess 2.85 million in the census.

Five year growth rates elsewhere in the region:

Durham R 6.2%
Peel R 11.6%
York R 15.6%
Halton R 15.1%
Niagara R 2.2%
Waterloo R 9.2%

Yes, households in Toronto are getting smaller. Just 17% of Toronto's population are children, compared to over 30% in Peel. Time to close some wading pools?

 

[TrickyRicky]

Another interesting statistic would be to see the change in number of households. Demographic trends in Western nations I would think have seen a significant rise in households without a corresponding increase in population.

 

[urbanboyto]

I'm confused about the real population of the City of Metro Toronto. I'm not talking about the GTA, I'm talking about just Metro Toronto. Since I was 7 year old kid driving in to the Metro Toronto I've always seen the population say 2.5 million. Today 30 years later I see that new signs have been put up still saying 2.5 million. Has Metro Toronto not grown in population at all in 30 years?! I can't believe Metro Toronto isn't any bigger? Go on Wikipedia and it says 2.5 million. Am I missing something?

Not to be nit-picky and I know it is not the point you are making but there is no such thing as "Metro Toronto" any more. Just the City of Toronto and the GTA.

 

[jaycola]

Courtesy Futurist: Toronto in 2030 and Beyond BY HAMUTAL DOTAN

Map of population growth/decline in Toronto. Black and blue are stable or falling.

In order to really have an impact on falling population densities and smaller households Toronto needs to get more population in the once more populated neighbourhoods. Replace the smaller households with more households.

Toronto (York, Peel and Durham too) needs to develop a zoning by lot foot frontage (or total lot coverage) for residential areas within that 2 km radius of a subway or Go station.

For lots up to 20 foot frontage you can have one accessory unit, the same as we have now for most residential areas.
Lots 20' to 30' you can have 3 units, up to 3 stories.
Lots 30' to 50' you can have Up to 4 units.
50' to 100' 5 units.
Over 100' 6 units. That would be the maximum for any residential zoned property.

People will be pissed if it happens in their neighbourhood but it's good for the economy, will create more rental stock, provides income for residents.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Look how blue the outline of the Old city of Toronto is (outside the influence of the condo boom in the core). That is proof in blue and red of how high-income individuals and wealth is concentrating in the core.

 

[ladyscraper]

February 8th is going to be interesting!

It seems like Toronto may finally pass Chicago in population for the city proper.

 

[Palma]

The population of the City of Toronto in 2011 was 2,760,000.
The province has all the stats you need on it's website. It provides updates not only on the province as a hole but also breaks it down to census divisions. The City of Toronto is a census division so you get the entire population. On the other hand you have individual cities like Miss or London which are not provided but rather the entire census division which is Miss case is the Regional Municipality or Peel or in London's case Middlesex County. You have to do a little math with those figure ie......Middlesex County has 460,000 with 75,000 {as their county website states} in the county itself so London is now at about 385,000. I know what you mean about the population signs which use to be updated every year, London's still sits at 352,000.
Just go to the www.ontario.ca website, go down the left hand side to Explore Government and then go down it's left hand side the Ministry of Finance and then down it's lefthand side to Demographics, There are a number of choices but go the Population projection site and get all the info you need. At the bottom of the page is the PDF download option and go to the one for Census Divisions.
It's a wealth of information but is a little hard to find if you don't know about it as most would not guess to look under the Ministry of Finance. Hope that helps.

That would mean Toronto's population has grown about 10% from 2006 when it stood at approx 2,503,000. So how is it if we are to believe all these figures being thrown around that from 2001 to 2006 it grew less than 1% yet 5 years later grew 10%. Is this possible?

 

[W. K. Lis]

According to MMAH Toronto was 2,773,000 in 2010. That's up 2.8% from five years earlier. So I'd guess 2.85 million in the census.

Five year growth rates elsewhere in the region:

Durham R 6.2%
Peel R 11.6%
York R 15.6%
Halton R 15.1%
Niagara R 2.2%
Waterloo R 9.2%

Yes, households in Toronto are getting smaller. Just 17% of Toronto's population are children, compared to over 30% in Peel. Time to close some wading pools?

Other than the census, other sources for those numbers must be used. OHIP is one source, since most people would need an OHIP number which would be updated every so many years. They most likely aligned the addresses (by postal code) in the OHIP system to produce those numbers.

Other sources could be income tax records, adding up the dependants and aligning them up with the addresses (postal codes).

Not everyone has a driver's license, so that would be unreliable.

Birth records and death records could also be unreliable, since some people may forget to apply.

 

[James]

I believe that there will be sufficient demand in the new condos being built in the downtown city core. What we need to improve upon is the infrastructure for people commuting into the city. I am not surprised in the least that the 905 suburbs will/have experienced significant growth over the past decade. It's inevitable that we'd grow out then up. The inflow of people to the city core far outweighs the outflow of people travelling out of the city for work, especially with many large companies having a renewed interest in establishing their mainstay in Toronto versus in the suburbs. Toronto is a fairly transient city and as long as the economy is healthy, which it is for the most part, people will come and situate themselves in both the suburbs and the city core.

 

[taal]

I believe that there will be sufficient demand in the new condos being built in the downtown city core. What we need to improve upon is the infrastructure for people commuting into the city. I am not surprised in the least that the 905 suburbs will/have experienced significant growth over the past decade. It's inevitable that we'd grow out then up. The inflow of people to the city core far outweighs the outflow of people travelling out of the city for work, especially with many large companies having a renewed interest in establishing their mainstay in Toronto versus in the suburbs. Toronto is a fairly transient city and as long as the economy is healthy, which it is for the most part, people will come and situate themselves in both the suburbs and the city core.

You're pretty far off on most regards

It is true that the GTA on the whole is growing up. Condos will dominate the inner 905 in the next 20+years (they will continue to do so in the 416 of course), job growth is different manner.