Canada's Trades-Heavy Towns (2021 Census)

In the 2021 Census, 31.3% of Wood Buffalo's labour force was in trades, transport and equipment operators — the highest share among Canada's 101 census subdivisions with 50,000 or more residents. Kawartha Lakes was next, at 24.7%. Across Canada, the same share was 16.8%. Two places of 10,000 to 49,999 rank higher than Wood Buffalo. That list is below.

The percentage is the published count for trades, transport and equipment operators, divided by the published labour-force total. On this site that total is the labour force aged 15 and over. It is a wider base than the employed labour force used for place of work. It is the same calculation as the occupation section on each location page.

The occupation categories do not add up to that labour-force total. Statistics Canada randomly rounds census counts, and people with no classified occupation stay in the published total. This page does not estimate that remainder, and it does not adjust for rounding.

Places of 50,000 or more

The ranking below keeps the list to census subdivisions — cities, towns, and other municipalities — with a 2021 population of at least 50,000. That threshold leaves 101 places. Every figure is calculated from the census counts in this site's location file. Seven of the top 15 are in British Columbia. Four are in Ontario, three in Alberta, and one in Quebec.

Brampton does not lead the share, but it has the largest trades count in this top 15: 80,200 people.

Shares are shown to one decimal place, matching the location pages. Two pairs round to the same tenth. Maple Ridge (11,575 of 49,870) ranks just ahead of Grande Prairie (8,505 of 36,645), and Caledon (9,380 of 43,140) just ahead of Delta (12,560 of 58,010), on the unrounded share.

Places of 10,000 to 49,999

Places under 50,000 residents post higher shares than that list. Dropping the floor to 10,000 residents, and stopping below 50,000, leaves 314 census subdivisions. Lac Ste. Anne County, at 10,832 residents, is first, at 31.9%. Saint-Lin--Laurentides is second, at 31.5%. Both are above Wood Buffalo's 31.3%. The top 20 are below. Seven are in Alberta, five in Quebec, three in Manitoba, two in British Columbia, two in Ontario, and one in Nova Scotia.

Shares are again to one decimal place. Sainte-Sophie (2,950 of 10,190) ranks just ahead of Mackenzie County (1,475 of 5,105), and Taché (1,765 of 6,615) just ahead of South Dundas (1,370 of 5,140), on the unrounded share.

Hanover in this table is the rural municipality in Manitoba, population 17,216. Hanover, Ontario, is a separate census subdivision of 7,967 residents. It falls below the 10,000 floor, so it is not in this ranking.

Random rounding moves a share more when the labour force is small. Lac Ste. Anne County's denominator is 5,565 people. Wood Buffalo's is 42,655, and Toronto's is 1,518,420. A few people rounded into or out of a count change the first decimal in the smaller place and do not change it in the larger one. The ranks above use the published counts as stored.

Natural resources and manufacturing

Natural resources, agriculture and related production, and manufacturing and utilities, are separate occupation groups. They use the same labour-force total as the trades share. A high trades share is not the same fact as a high natural-resources share. In the top 10 of the 10,000-to-49,999 list, natural resources runs from 1.7% to 16.5%. Manufacturing stays in a narrower band, from 3.2% to 7.3%. Canada is 2.8% and 4.4% on those two groups.

Yellowhead County has the highest natural-resources share in that top 10, at 16.5% (860 of 5,220), and the highest manufacturing share in the group, at 7.3% (380 of 5,220). Mackenzie County is next on natural resources, at 15.9% (810 of 5,105). Lac Ste. Anne County is 13.4% (745 of 5,565). Hanover is 10.7% (910 of 8,490).

The other end of the same top 10 is close to, or under, the Canada natural-resources share. Sainte-Sophie is 1.7% (175 of 10,190). Saint-Lin--Laurentides, second on trades, is 1.9% (240 of 12,715). Lavaltrie is 1.8% (140 of 7,680). Manufacturing in the top 10 runs from 3.2% in St. Clements (200 of 6,315) to Yellowhead County's 7.3%. Canada's manufacturing share is 4.4% (857,540 of 19,310,340). Canada's natural-resources share is 2.8% (541,235 of 19,310,340).

Among the 15 larger places in the first table, Norfolk County has the highest manufacturing share, at 10.5% (3,325 of 31,620), and the highest natural-resources share, at 7.2% (2,275 of 31,620). Wood Buffalo, the trades leader in that list, is 4.0% natural resources (1,690 of 42,655) and 6.1% manufacturing (2,595 of 42,655). The three groups do not add up to the labour-force total.

Where the largest cities land

Five census subdivisions in the file have 1,000,000 residents or more. Edmonton is the only one above the Canada share: 32nd at 18.5% (102,620 of 554,040). Calgary is 59th at 15.8% (115,655 of 730,050). Toronto is 89th at 11.6% (175,505 of 1,518,420) and has the largest trades count in the group of 101. Montréal is 93rd at 10.3% (98,535 of 959,130). Ottawa is 99th at 10.0% (54,825 of 549,985).

Winnipeg, at 749,607 residents, ranked 57th at 16.0% (64,295 of 402,365). Vancouver ranked 96th at 10.1% (39,750 of 394,670).

The low end of the 50,000-person list

Oakville is last among the 101 places, at 9.0%. The five lowest:

Vancouver, at 10.1%, ranks 96th, just ahead of Waterloo and Markham on the unrounded share. Vancouver is 39,750 of 394,670. Waterloo is 6,640 of 65,955. Markham is 17,160 of 170,540. Ottawa (54,825 of 549,985) ranks just ahead of Fredericton (3,475 of 34,905). Both round to 10.0%.

Oakville led the worked-at-home ranking in Canada's top work-from-home cities. It is last on this list. The two rankings use different census questions and different denominators. Worked at home is a share of the employed labour force. This post is a share of the labour force.

The national figure

For Canada, 3,239,500 people were in trades, transport and equipment operators out of a labour force of 19,310,340, which is 16.8%. The country's 2021 population was 36,991,981. That Canada figure is the country's published counts in the location file. It is not the sum of the municipal rows above.

Among the 101 places of 50,000 or more, the median share was 16.3%. Belleville holds that middle place, at 16.3% (4,160 of 25,450). On the one-decimal shares used in the tables, 47 places round above Canada's 16.8% and 54 round lower. Added together, those 101 places had 1,916,155 people in this occupation group out of a labour force of 12,888,495, a combined share of 14.9%. The 314 places of 10,000 to 49,999 combine to 19.3% (630,075 of 3,257,685). The median counts each municipality once. The combined share counts every person in the labour force, so large places with lower shares — Toronto, Montréal, Calgary, and Ottawa — pull the 50,000-person group below both the median and the Canada figure. The smaller band, taken together, sits above Canada.

Newfoundland and Labrador was the highest province or territory in the file, at 19.4% (47,285 of 243,330). Alberta was next, at 19.3% (441,955 of 2,295,380). Quebec was the lowest, at 15.8% (702,290 of 4,435,460). Ontario was the second lowest, at 15.9% (1,175,410 of 7,399,205).

Compare a place yourself

Open any linked place for the full occupation breakdown, or set two places side by side in the comparison tool. The education, commute, occupation, and industry sections use the same anchors on location pages and in that tool. The worked-at-home ranking is in Canada's top work-from-home cities.

Sources

Trades, natural-resources, and manufacturing counts, labour-force totals, and population are from the Statistics Canada 2021 Census of Population (Census Profile), as stored for each place in the Canadian Data Insights location file. Shares on this page are calculated here from those published counts. See how this site handles census data. Statistics Canada data is used under the Open Government Licence – Canada. This post is by Andrew.