![]() And a recent Fraser Institute study comparing population density in cities across Canada and other high-income countries found that Canada’s major cities have relatively low population densities compared to other international cities.įor example, while Toronto, Canada’s biggest city at 2.7 million, seems crowded at 4,457 inhabitants per square km, compare it to Barcelona, which has 1.6 million inhabitants but in a smaller area, leading to a population density of 15,873 people per square km. Studies have found greater urban population densities associated with economic productivity gains especially in knowledge and creative industries. Dense urban centres allow for economies of scale in spreading the cost of infrastructure such as transit across more people, creating efficiencies. Population density is important because it creates dense nodes of economic activity and opportunity that foster economic innovation, productivity and growth as well as diverse cultural and artistic opportunities. Yet one has to ask if we have the right kind of population density? In other words, despite our vast geography, we have created more density, and the benefits that flow from it, in our major urban centres. ![]() ![]() Nevertheless, we are still a highly urbanized country with more than 80 per cent of our population living in cities and towns. Former prime minister Mackenzie King once quipped, “If some countries have too much history, we have too much geography,” and this has always been evidenced in Canada’s low national population density estimated at about four people per square kilometre.
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