[vz64]

I was trying to get total population of each of Toronto's boroughs, but the site is not very intuitive... Instead, I looked at Federal Election Distircts, ranking those with at least 5% growth rate (name, population in thousands 2006, 2011, gain, and % growth):

1 Trinity-Spadina____________115.3 144.7 29.4 25.50
2 Willowdale________________129.3 140.5 11.2 8.66
3 Toronto-Centre____________121.4 130.3 8.9 7.33
4 Etobicoke Lake Shore_______114.6 123.0 8.4 7.33
5 Scarborough SW___________102.2 108.7 6.5 6.36
6 Don Valley West___________117.0 123.0 6.0 5.13
7 York Centre_______________113.4 118.4 5.0 4.41

So, as anticipated, most gain went to Downtown, Lakeshore, NYCC, and parts of Scarborough.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Usually, changes in election riding boundaries follow the census. Will there be a change to increase the number of ridings in Toronto? Not unless the riding is rural, in Quebec, or Conservative.

 

[k10ery]

No. They don't base population projections directly on preliminary census results, so initial census releases will [always?] be different (lower) than current estimates.

I read more about this and you are right. But it seems remarkable that the Census undercounts the population by 1 million people. That's a lot of statistical fudging to get to the "real" number. And a lot of money to spend for a very flawed count, don't you think?

 

[gristle]

Just for the record, Canada has one of the most accurate census records in the world.

There are people who adamantly refuse to participate in the census - even though it is required by law. There are also people who fall off the radar - such the homeless or those simply not wanting to be found.

 

[adma]

Population Centre: 5,132,794

Metropolitan Area: 5,583,064

Greater Golden Horseshoe: 8,695,070

-Brant: 136,035
-Dufferin: 56,881
-Durham: 608,124
-Haldimand: 44,876
-Halton: 501,669
-Hamilton: 519,949
-Kawartha Lakes: 73,214
-Niagara: 431,346
-Northumberland: 82,126
-Peel: 1,296,814
-Peterborough: 134,933
-Simcoe: 446,063
-Toronto: 2,615,060
-Waterloo: 507,096
-Wellington: 208,360
-York: 1,032,524

Thinking back to discussions in other threads: here's proof that when it comes to officially recognized common geographic usage as opposed to jurisdictional minutiae, Ontario does *not* have Virginia-style "independent cities". Brant includes Brantford, Wellington includes Guelph, etc. (Memo to howl, freshcutgrass, etc)

 

[CDL.TO]

Thinking back to discussions in other threads: here's proof that when it comes to officially recognized common geographic usage as opposed to jurisdictional minutiae, Ontario does *not* have Virginia-style "independent cities". Brant includes Brantford, Wellington includes Guelph, etc. (Memo to howl, freshcutgrass, etc)

Perhaps it's more that Canada doesn't recognize these independent cities, but Ontario does. Consider the differences inherent in viewing it through a statistical lens as opposed to a political/governance lens.

 

[EVCco]

I neglected to post the Toronto "Economic Region" population: 5,878,412


I must say, I never noticed the "Population Centre" and "Economic Region" divisions from previous census; just the city and CMA pops.

Interesting distinctions...


Population Centre:

Census Metropolitan Area:

Economic Region:

 

[adma]

Perhaps it's more that Canada doesn't recognize these independent cities, but Ontario does. Consider the differences inherent in viewing it through a statistical lens as opposed to a political/governance lens.

Notice that I referred to "officially recognized common geographic usage". That is, whatever the niceties of governance, Ontario has traditionally fallen into step with that city-and-county-as-one definition--as expressed in commonly available maps, municipal directories, signage, etc.

Then again, we're dealing with a time when traditional maps have been eclipsed by Google, print municipal directories have been eclipsed by on-line resources, and...to put it bluntly, it may be more like such niceties of "common geographic usage" have fallen into weak vestigiality if not outright eclipse. I mean, back in the days of the print municipal directory, everything was divided by geographic county/regional division, which helped impart a sense of geographic order; these days on-line, that isn't so easy to come by. And in our age of Google and GPS, the paper-map psychic momentousness of county/regional boundaries has been rendered irrelevant.

Look: properly speaking, as an Ontarian, with all the common geographic resources available, you should have grown up (and, I mean, grown up, i.e. long before hardcore poli-sci courses) with this kind of mental map imprinted into your skull.

And I'm shocked now to realize that maybe, and especially among those under 40 or even 50, such grown-up-with "common geography" isn't any longer the case. It's like when it comes to mental-geography definers, county/regional subdivisions have more of the marginality of Toronto's current community council boundaries than the idiosyncratic set-in-stoneness of Metro Toronto's former component municipalities...

 

[Jonny5]

And I'm shocked now to realize that maybe, and especially among those under 40 or even 50, such grown-up-with "common geography" isn't any longer the case. It's like when it comes to mental-geography definers, county/regional subdivisions have more of the marginality of Toronto's current community council boundaries than the idiosyncratic set-in-stoneness of Metro Toronto's former component municipalities...

My grandparents, great aunts and uncles know the counties by heart, or at least all of them south of Sudbury and West of Kingston. They are all in their late 70s now. Their parent's parents immigrated and settled in or near Halton. Their were lots of children in each generation and they spread out all over the southern half of the province. They have stories about travelling all over for birthdays, family reunions, funerals and weddings and probably drove on almost every kilometre of highways 2 - 10 at some point. Recent generations have had the number of children per mother drop from eight to two and now one. All of my family members now live between Oshawa and Hamilton. There are no weddings or funerals in places like Clinton, Morristown, Picton, Walkerton, Stratford, Collingwood, Grimsby or Cayuga. If I wasn't as in tune to provincial issues as I am, I probably would not know where any of those places are. I'm quite sure none of my friends have ever heard of them. They mostly don't know anyone who lives out of the GTA, except possibly the ones who are from rural towns.

 

[adma]

I'm quite sure none of my friends have ever heard of them. They mostly don't know anyone who lives out of the GTA, except possibly the ones who are from rural towns.

Well, there's always the matter of "cottage country" or generic road-tripping here and there--but even there, I suspect that in our 400-series days, the trips are more utilitarian and strictly destination-focused than they once might have been.

I think you've hit the bullseye re what I'm referring to as "common geography"--something that was once, implicitly, understood by everybody, almost by way of provincial-citizen duty. The kind of geographic coordinates advanced by provincial highway maps and the like. But it's also interesting in how you frame it as something of an older-generation exoticism--like, *I* grew up with that common-geographical understanding, but by that time it was almost as a Seth-esque retro-ism, an intuitive identification with "old ways".

If anything, I'd set the divide as "pre-1950" vs "post-1950". The pre-1950s encompassing the early motoring adventurers as well as the latter-day blue-highway/Route 66/Steinbeck/Kerouac-worshipping boomers; to them, the traditional road-map geographic coordinates, county boundaries and all, were holy screed. The post-1950s were those who grew up in the Interstate/400-series era; to them, road trips were often more about are-we-there-yet tedium (or later, in-car-entertainment distraction) than wide-eyed discovery, and there was comparative disinterest in said coordinates. Or if they *were* engaged to the road and the mapping thereof, it was more through the fine-detail scaleability of GPS that rendered traditional road maps anachronistic.

The post-1950s are, as you suggest, the kinds who'd really need to be "in tune to provincial issues" to give a flying whoozis about any county-based common geography. And maybe it's from that standpoint that certain people assume that Ontario has Virginia-style "independent cities"--because, well, they're not like your 70something elders, or myself. They're speaking from a POV that didn't have such common knowledge bred-in-the-bone...

 

[MisterF]

Old Toronto:

2006: 687,166
2011: 736,775
% Growth: 7.2%

Good news, considering that household sizes are still shrinking in the low density parts of the city. Almost 50,000 new residents in the old city of Toronto, or 10,000 per year. The condo boom is having an impact. Since you added up the numbers from individual census tracts, any idea of the numbers for downtown? I would think it's growing quite a bit faster.

 

[GenerationW]

Usually, changes in election riding boundaries follow the census. Will there be a change to increase the number of ridings in Toronto? Not unless the riding is rural, in Quebec, or Conservative.

Yes, it's all a huge conspiracy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_district_(Canada)

 

[freshcutgrass]

Does anyone know of any other method of getting census tract info other than the Geosearch map at Statcan....WHICH IS COMPLETELY USELESS!!!

It reminds me of computer programming of the 80's. Plus it just doesn't work most of the time.

 

[vz64]

The only useful stat I found was Federal Election Districts, which might be useful to figure out a total population of individual boroughs. I guess we have to wait until neighbourhood profiles data to get numbers that are more accurate..

 

[Johnny Au]

I suspect that the Harperites fudged the 2011 census, so that Election Canada can unintentionally gerrymander the ridings in the favour of the Conservatives.

That is not a democratic move, the Right Honourable Steve Harpo!