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I'm curious what statistics you are looking at. I honestly would be shocked if rural regions were growing in Canada, and the stats you were looking at were mor

I'm curious what statistics you are looking at. I honestly would be shocked if rural regions were growing in Canada, and the stats you were looking at were more a story of urbanization taking over formerly exurban or rural small towns in a metro region. I guess the oil and gas regions might be an exception there. https://www.statista.com/statistics/271208/urbanization-in-canada/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/271208/urbanization-in-c... From my perspective, the Golden Horseshoe from Toronto to the Niagara region has been intensifying non-stop for decades and is unrecognizable from 30 years ago. Skyscrapers and condos in former low density suburbs inside the greenbelt, and townhouses and plazas in former farm communities outside it. It's now almost continuously developed down to Niagara Falls. You might have called them rural two decades ago but at this point they're solidly in the GTA.

randomdata 8y ago
> I'm curious what statistics you are looking at. Population data is provided by the Census conducted by Statistics Canada. Housing data is from the Housing Market Stats provided by CREA. > I honestly would be shocked if rural regions were growing in Canada For some perspective, Canada defines urban as 1,000 or more population with a population density of 400. Everything else is rural. This may be surprising as many consider a small farming village with 1,000 people to be rural, but officially such a community can be considered urban. All regions, including large cities and rural areas, are growing in absolute numbers. My above comment was speaking in relative terms, where population centres with more than 100,000 people now represent a smaller portion of the population than in years past. Were we have seen the most growth is in communities with 1,000 to 29,999 people. Technically urban, but probably rural from the perspective of the comments above. Such communities are certainly not what most would call cities. > From my perspective, the Golden Horseshoe from Toronto to the Niagara region has been intensifying non-stop for decades and is unrecognizable from 30 years ago. I see the same thing, but I would argue that the "Rural Renaissance", as CBC put it in a recent article about this shift, is relatively recent. The early signs were only starting to become visible in 2016 data, and I would suggest that only in the last year or so that the housing data has flipped. Much of that build-out you speak of happened over the last 30 years when cities were growing by leaps and bounds. I will reiterate that all communities types are gaining population in absolute numbers as Canada's population grows. What has changed is people are more likely to take an interest in communities that are not large cities, which is a change in behaviour to previous decades.

randomdata 8y ago

> I'm curious what statistics you are looking at. Population data is provided by the Census conducted by Statistics Canada. Housing data is from the Housing Market Stats provided by CREA. > I honestly would be shocked if rural regions were growing in Canada For some perspective, Canada defines urban as 1,000 or more population with a population density of 400. Everything else is rural. This may be surprising as many consider a small farming village with 1,000 people to be rural, but officially such a community can be considered urban. All regions, including large cities and rural areas, are growing in absolute numbers. My above comment was speaking in relative terms, where population centres with more than 100,000 people now represent a smaller portion of the population than in years past. Were we have seen the most growth is in communities with 1,000 to 29,999 people. Technically urban, but probably rural from the perspective of the comments above. Such communities are certainly not what most would call cities. > From my perspective, the Golden Horseshoe from Toronto to the Niagara region has been intensifying non-stop for decades and is unrecognizable from 30 years ago. I see the same thing, but I would argue that the "Rural Renaissance", as CBC put it in a recent article about this shift, is relatively recent. The early signs were only starting to become visible in 2016 data, and I would suggest that only in the last year or so that the housing data has flipped. Much of that build-out you speak of happened over the last 30 years when cities were growing by leaps and bounds. I will reiterate that all communities types are gaining population in absolute numbers as Canada's population grows. What has changed is people are more likely to take an interest in communities that are not large cities, which is a change in behaviour to previous decades.