The 2021 Census

In 2021, Engaged Communities, with a co-op student from Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute, studied the importance of the census for the local community while the count was happening. We started this project because the census data drives government funding, and there is a local concern that the population is vastly undercounted. The Canadian Government has released the data from the 2021 Census. On this page we will compare and contrast this data with past years for our community and mention some concerns!!

Population Changes

Based on census data, as expected, our population has grown since 2011. We had a net 10% growth from 2011 to 2016, and this trend has kept up. But these numbers still seem low – many suggestions of the community population are closer to 30,000, which is almost 40% more than what is currently reported. Furthermore, the growing population has put a lot of strain on housing, and Thorncliffe buildings need improvements to support the large and growing population.

Primary Spoken Language

The main language we have spoken has not changed since 2016 and 2011. English comes in the lead, with Urdu being a close second. English is spoken in day to day life, but it is interesting seeing such diverse languages having around 1000 speakers in our community. We are a very diverse community, which unifies us in unimaginable ways!

Average Household Distrubtion

Wealth has gone up in Thorncliffe, with people making on average 10% more since 2011 in revenue brackets from 20,000-60,000$. However, people making over $100,000 has decreased from 22% to 16%, while the number of people in the lowest brackets has gone up X%. It is worrying that the number of people on Thorncliffe in poverty appears to be increasing.

Immigrants By Place of Birth

A majority of immigrants in our community come from Pakistan. mmigration from Middle Eastern countries has increased since by 2016 by about 8%, which is not surprising as many Syrians have arrived in recent years.