York claims highest growth rate in Ontario and third highest in Canada

York Regional council recently received preliminary information about the Region's socioeconomic trends, based on the Statistics Canada 2006 Census data that is currently available.

Following is a sampling from the report: • York Region grew 22.4 per cent from 729,254 in 2001 to 892,712 in 2006, making it the highest growth rate for a Census Division in Ontario and the third highest in Canada. Peel Region, which had the second highest growth rate in Ontario, grew by 17.2 per cent and the City of Toronto grew by less than one per cent. • Most of York's growth was due to a rapid increase in immigrant population. The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has the highest number of immigrants in Canada, but most of the growth was in the 905 municipalities. • Unlike most of Canada, the traditional family structure is still dominant in York, with 82.7 per cent of census families being married couples compared to 73.9 per cent in Ontario. This is also the highest proportion of married couples in the GTA. • In 2006, there were 275,680 private dwellings in York, compared to 223,185 in 2001. Renters decreased from 13.7 per cent in 2001 to 11.7 per cent in 2006 and are the lowest proportion in the GTA. This indicates that the rental market continues to tighten in York and low income households may have fewer options for housing. • In 2001, 40 per cent of the region's total population were immigrants. By 2006, the immigrant population represented 43 per cent of the total population. Now, 380,535 immigrants make York their home. • The top five non-official languages spoken in York homes are Chinese languages (40.5 per cent), Italian (8.4 per cent), Russian (7.9 per cent), Persian (6 per cent), and Tamil (5 per cent).

This data is intended to support and promote service and community program design that is more responsive to York's changing demographics in all nine local municipalities. The data analysis was undertaken by the Region in partnership with the York Region Consortium, a partnership of public sector organizations in the area.