The latest census data clearly shows Barrie is a place where people come to raise their families, bucking a national trend that shows more solo households than ever.
While 29 per cent of households in Canada are made up of just one person, in the Barrie census metropolitan area (CMA), which includes Innisfil and Springwater Township, it is just 22 per cent, making it the second lowest in the country behind Abbotsford, B.C.
Although nationally, single-person households are trending downward.
As housing and rental prices continue to spike, the trend of solo living in Canada is quickly giving way to home sharing, results from the 2021 Census are showing.
Population growth and aging, urbanization, rising educational attainment, sustained immigration, rising ethno-cultural diversity are also contributing to that trend, according to Statistics Canada.
“The census shows what we’ve always traditionally been, which is one of the most family-oriented cities in the country,” observed Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman. “I also noticed our percentage of seniors is lower than most other cities and the country as a whole and the province as a whole.”
The bulk of the Barrie area’s 60,180 households — 28,570 to be exact — are made up of two people, with 13,680 containing three people, 12,750 having four, and 5,175 have five or more people.
The average family size in this area is 2.9 people.
There are 10,970 one-parent families in the Barrie area, the vast majority of them — 8,420 — led by women.
In the Barrie area, the majority of the 176,655 residents aged 15 and older live in a married or common-law relationship, numbering 100,335. Of those, 80,040 are married and 20,290 are common law while another 76,315 are not married or in a common-law relationship.
When it comes to the proportion of couples with children, Barrie ranks the fourth highest in the country with 55 per cent, compared to 50 per cent nationally.
In fact, Barrie is among the leading communities in most of the statistical categories around family life.
“In Barrie, you have more (people)… going to Barrie and raising their kids” when compared to other communities, said Claudine Provencher, an analyst with Statistics Canada’s Centre for Demography.
But Barrie is home to an array of families, she added, including multi-generational families.
Barrie has a higher portion of one-parent families, at 18 per cent, compared to 16 per cent nationally.
When it comes to multi-generational households, the Barrie area ranks fifth highest with four per cent compared to three per cent nationally.
Meanwhile, 12 per cent of children under age 14 live with at least one grandparent, which is higher than the national average of nine per cent.
The trend of young adults living with their family is particularly noticeable in Barrie, which ranks the fifth highest in the country.
Of young adults aged 20 to 34, 42 per cent live at home in the Barrie area. Nationally, that figure is 35 per cent.
The latest statistics also show Barrie proper has more one-parent families — 20 per cent — than Innisfil with 10 per cent and Springwater Township with 15 per cent.
The numbers reflect the adage coined in the 1989 film Field of Dreams: “If you build it they will come.”
“I think it’s a self-perpetuating thing,” said Lehman, pointing at the single-family houses orientated toward families with children that has dominated the landscape in Barrie for decades. “There’s just not been very much seniors housing built in Barrie and that’s now actually an aging demographic that doesn’t have enough, but there’s not enough housing for anybody in any demographic.”
But as more apartment buildings — including highrises, townhouses and condo complexes — are constructed, Lehman expects to see the proportionately low number of seniors here to climb.
Information released earlier this year showed the Barrie CMA was home to 212,856 people in 2021, up eight per cent from the 197,059 people living here in 2016. That includes 36,200 under the age of 14, 142,210 between 15 and 64 years of age and 34,440 who were 65 years and older.
