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Growth of density in Toronto since 1971

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[flv]http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/analysis/popdwell/maps/animations/CMAs/Toronto.swf[/flv]

While I was catching up on Spacing Montreal posts this weekend, one entry really caught my attention: Christopher DeWolf musing about how Montreal continues to sprawl and become less dense, while Toronto’s density began to level out in the 1990s and has been rising steadily over the last decade. The trends are illustrated by maps of density over a 35 year period (1971-2006) provided by Statistics Canada.

[ EDITOR’S NOTE: Use the the ‘stop’ symbol to move through the years at a reasonable speed. ]

What’s interesting to watch in Toronto’s maps, as Chris notes, is how quickly the immigrant-rich west end of Toronto becomes less dense between 1971 and 1981. I was also struck by the growth of places like “downtown” North York (explodes between 1986 and 2006) and the high rise developments in northern Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough.

Check out Montreal’s growth and the rapid density of Vancouver over the same 35 year period.

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8 comments

  1. Very interesting video! I’ve just published an article about the history of Toronto, and it’s amazing how fast is it spreading. I think it might have to do a lot with the fact that many neighbourhoods (King West for example) are changing – older industrial zones are turned into residential areas and there’s also more space for parks as well.

  2. It would be interesting to see a similar series of maps for density of jobs.

  3. There are also maps for Edmonton and Calgary. Those ones are really depressing.

  4. I wished I would have taken photos of trips back to Windsor over the last 8 years along the 401 — just by Mavis Road, there was farmland, then the houses got closer, now it’s a full on suburb, and the trees are growing (to hopefully block the 401 from the front yards that are built 100 meters away. It was interesting to watch it happen in this spot over time. Usually these things just suddenly “are there.”

    This was a good location to do a sort of time-lapse. I bet somebody out there has something like this.

  6. Damn I really feel old now.I still remember getting off at eglinton subway station the last station on the YONGE street line.Boy has Toronto grown up.We used to go fishing in the humber river and caught fish that you could actually eat.