Population Density, 2006

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Abstract

With 3.5 persons per square kilometre, Canada is one of the countries with the lowest population densities in the world. Census metropolitan areas (CMAs) with the highest population densities—Toronto (866), Montréal (854), Vancouver (735), Kitchener (546), Hamilton (505), and Victoria (475)—were located close to United States border.

Canada is one of the countries with the lowest population densities in the world. According to the 2006 Census, its population density was 3.5 persons per square kilometre. This compares with a population density of 3.3 persons per square kilometre in 2001.

In 2006, most of Canada’s population lived within 200 kilometres of the United States. Canada’s largest urban centres are also located in the southern part of the country with densities averaging 245 people per square kilometre. Census metropolitan areas (CMAs) with the highest population densities—Toronto (866), Montréal (854), Vancouver (735), Kitchener (546), Hamilton (505), and Victoria (475)—are located close to the United States. The southern portion of Ontario encompassing the Greater Golden Horseshoe and the Ottawa region plus the south-west corner of Quebec close to the CMA of Montréal showed the densest population at between 50 and 150 persons per square kilometre at the census division level. Some of the cities (CAs) with very high densities were also close to this belt (Stratford, 1,205, Ingersoll, 912, Woodstock, 810, Cobourg, 814, and Hawkesbury, 1,000).

By contrast, thousands of kilometres to the north, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are sparsely populated. These territories embrace 40% of the Canadian land mass but only 0.3% of the population. Human habitation in the north clings largely to scattered settlements: villages among vast expanses of tundra and taiga. The census agglomeration (CA) of Whitehorse is the largest city in the territories with about 23 000 people in 2006 and a population density of 2.7 persons per square kilometre.

The Daily is Statistics Canada's official release bulletin. The Daily for March 13, 2007, marked the public release of this census variable. Highlight tables allowing users to perform simple rank and sort functions with the data at various levels of geography are available for this variable here: Population and Dwelling Count Highlight Tables, 2006 Census.

The text was adapted from Statistics Canada, Portrait of the Canadian Population in 2006, 2006 Census, Catalogue number 97-550-XWE2006001. Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from the Statistic Canada’s regional offices, its World Wide Web site at www.statcan.gc.ca, and its toll-free access number 1-800-263-1136.