Having located
the data showing the rural and urban population
split I though I would share a little of what I have learned, make of
what you will because statistics can be manipulated to show almost
anything and my selection of where to divide one area from another is
purely arbitrary......
The data is for Ontario
is divided into 48 Census Districts corresponding closely (so far as
I am aware) with County, District, or City boundaries. These 48 areas
are further divided into at total of 584 Census Sub Districts which
very loosely reflect community, town or township boundaries.
Of the 48 Census
Districts, Toronto has 0% rural population and just 7 more have less
than 10% 'rural' population (as defined by Statscan) those being
Durham 10%
Ottawa 8.3%
Hamilton 7.3%
Waterloo 6.5%
Halton 5.7%
York 5.7%
Peel 2.7%
A further 5 fall below
the 20% threshold namely
Brant 15.1%
Essex 14.4%
Niagara 12.1%
Sudbury 11.3%
Middlesex 10.9%
If we discount these
large Urban populations the remainder of Ontario has a rural
population of 41% verses the overall percentage of just 15%. It can
be seen that when it comes to getting the ear of upper levels of
government where the majority rules (as it probably should) large
geographical areas of the province are at the mercy of small
(geographical) but populous urban areas.
Breaking this down even
further the Sub District data reveals that of the 584 sub-districts
listed there are 101 'communities' that have a population of less
than 20% 'rural' residents (over 80% urban) whilst the number of
'communities' with more that 80% 'rural' residents is 333. There is
little doubt that some of the 100 or so largely urban community’s
are considered 'rural towns' but it also includes such places as
Barrie, Kitchener, Mississauga and of course Toronto, which clearly
are not. This once again highlights the number of smaller
'communities' verses the number of larger Towns and cities, make of
it what you will, I just like to see the actual figures so that when
I say 'rural' or 'urban' I know (somewhat) what I am talking about.
All this started off
with my efforts to come up with a suitable introduction page for a
community web site which over the next year or so I am interested in
helping develop, and desperately hoping will lead to a one stop rural
data base and interactive 'portal' for all of rural Ontario.
Here then is a sample
of the sort of thing I think a visitor should see at the top of each
county or district page.
Grey
County
Grey
County forum - List of Municipalities - List of communities -
Other resources - Video & Audio
You
are here – Ontario – SW Ontario – Grey County
Stretching from
Georgian Bay and the City of Owen Sound in the north west to Meaford
and the Blue Mountains in the North East and to the towns of Hanover
and Dundalk in the south. It has a population of 92,411 (2006) with
almost 55% being considered rural residents. It has an area of 4,508
sq km (1740 sq miles) and is approximately 50km from east to west and
70km from north to south.
There were 2867
farms in Grey County in 2006 totaling approximately 2,300 sq km (888
sq miles) about half of which were under 53 hectares (130 Acres),
more than one third of the farms were primarily beef operations.
A public forum
with a variety of topics related to rural matters would be inserted
here.
The Municipalities
pages would be similar each with their own separate public forum.
I will be developing
and sharing MY vision of such a network in future posts, suggestions
and comments are welcome.
If such an Ontario wide
forum were to be created would you use it? Let us know either here in
my comment section or over at The
Rural Voices Network forum. (please join and
encourage this group in their efforts to bring our rural communities
together)
Sources:-
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