Vital Statistics

Regularly updated charts tracking employment, business activity, housing, population, and crime in Waterloo Region.
Last updated

October 12, 2026

Looking for a handy overview of employment, business activity, housing, population, and crime in Waterloo Region? This Vital Statistics page is where to look. It contains a regularly updated collection of charts on the Region’s health in each of these key areas, often with Ontario and Canada added for comparison. Most of the data used to produce these charts is updated monthly, so this page will be refreshed at least once a month to capture the latest statistics. The rental, population, and crime data is released annually, so those charts will only change once a year. The data in many of these charts will also be analyzed in more depth in regular posts.

The population and crime charts include data for the entire Region, but for all other charts, only data for the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo census metropolitan area (CMA) is available. The CMA covers the Region excluding Wellesley Township. Wellesley contains only 1.7% of the Region’s population, so its exclusion from the data has no meaningful impact on the statistics in these charts. As such, the term “Region” is used throughout the charts on this page.

All charts are interactive, so hovering over any line or bar shows a box with details of the underlying data point.

See Key terms for definitions.

Unless otherwise indicated, this legend applies to all charts on this page.

RegionOntarioCanada

Labour market

Employment

Labour force participation rate

Unemployment rate

Employment Insurance beneficiaries

Business activity

Business openings and closings

Building permits

Housing

Housing starts

Ownership type

Housing prices

Rental market

Vacancy rate

Too little of the data for studio apartments was reliable enough to report, so there is no chart for these units.

Average rent

Year-over-year change in rent

Too little of the data for studio and 3+ bedroom apartments was reliable enough to report, so there is no chart for these units.

Population

Number of residents

Components of population change

Natural increase (births - deaths)

Immigrants

Net non-permanent residents

Net interprovincial migration

Net intraprovincial migration

Crime

All crime

Violent crime

Non-violent crime

Term Definition
Active businesses “Active businesses are those businesses that reported having one or more employees in a given month.” (Statistics Canada, table 33-10-0270-01, footnote 4)
Apartment “all dwellings other than those described above, including structures commonly known as stacked townhouses, duplexes, triplexes, double duplexes and row duplexes.” (CMHC, Survey methodologies: Starts and Completions and Market Absorption, “Apartment and Other”)
Average rent “The rent refers to the actual amount tenants pay for their unit. No adjustments are made for the inclusion or exclusion of amenities and services.” (CMHC, Methodology for Rental Market Survey)
Condo “an individual dwelling unit which is privately owned, but where the building and/or the land are collectively owned by all dwelling unit owners.” (CMHC, Survey methodologies: Starts and Completions and Market Absorption, “Condominium”)
Crime Severity Index “The Crime Severity Index (CSI) measures changes in the level of severity of crime in Canada from year to year. In the index, all crimes are assigned a weight based on their seriousness. The level of seriousness is based on actual sentences handed down by the courts in all provinces and territories. More serious crimes are assigned higher weights, less serious offences lower weights.” “The crime severity index includes all Criminal Code violations including traffic, as well as drug violations and all Federal Statutes.” (Statistics Canada, table 35-10-0026-01, footnotes 20 and 16)
Employment “Number of persons who, during the reference week, worked for pay or profit, or performed unpaid family work or had a job but were not at work due to own illness or disability, personal or family responsibilities, labour dispute, vacation, or other reason. Those persons on layoff and persons without work but who had a job to start at a definite date in the future are not considered employed.” (Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0459-01, footnote 7)
Homeowner “a residence where the owner owns the dwelling and lot outright.” (CMHC, Survey methodologies: Starts and Completions and Market Absorption)
Housing starts A start is “the beginning of construction work on a building. This is usually when the concrete has been poured for the whole of the footing around the structure or an equivalent stage where a basement will not be part of the structure.” (CMHC, Survey methodologies: Starts and Completions and Market Absorption)
Immigrant “Immigrant refers to a person who is, or who has ever been, a permanent resident (landed immigrant). Such a person has been granted the right to live in Canada permanently by immigration authorities. Immigrants who have obtained Canadian citizenship by naturalization are included in this group.” (Statistics Canada)
Incidents The number of incidents reported to a police service. Unreported crimes are therefore not included in this number.
Interprovincial migration “Interprovincial migration represents all movement from one province or territory to another involving a change in the usual place [of] residence.” (Statistics Canada, Annual Demographic Estimates: Subprovincial Areas, Appendix A: Glossary)
Intraprovincial migration “Intraprovincial migration or subprovincial migration represents all movement from one region to another within the same province or territory involving a change of the usual place [of] residence.” (Statistics Canada, Annual Demographic Estimates: Subprovincial Areas, Appendix A: Glossary)
Labour force “Number of civilian, non-institutionalized persons 15 years of age and over who, during the reference week, were employed or unemployed.” (Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0459-01, footnote 6)
Natural increase in population “Variation of the population size over a given period as a result of the difference between the numbers of births and deaths.” (Statistics Canada, Annual Demographic Estimates: Subprovincial Areas, Appendix A: Glossary)
New Housing Price Index “The New Housing Price Index (NHPI) is a monthly series that measures changes over time in the builders’ selling prices of new residential houses, where detailed specifications pertaining to each house remain the same between two consecutive periods.” “The index base period, for which the New Housing Price Index (NHPI) equals 100, is December 2016.” (Statistics Canada, New Housing Price Index survey description; table 18-10-0205-01, footnote 3)
Non-permanent resident “A non-permanent resident refers to a person from another country with a usual place of residence in Canada and who has a work or study permit or who has claimed refugee status (asylum claimant, protected person or member of related groups). Family members living with work or study permit holders are also included unless these family members are already Canadian citizens, landed immigrants (permanent residents), or non-permanent residents themselves.” (Statistics Canada, table 17-10-0153-01, footnote 13)
Non-violent crime “The non-violent crime severity index includes all non-violent Criminal Code violations including traffic, as well as drug violations and all Federal Statutes.” (Statistics Canada, table 35-10-0026-01, footnote 19)
Openings “Opening businesses are businesses that transition from having no employees in the previous month to having at least one employee in the current month. These instances occur when a new, small firm begins, when a large firm opens a new establishment or when a seasonal firm re-opens.” (Statistics Canada, table 33-10-0270-01, footnote 1)
Participation rate “The participation rate is the number of labour force participants expressed as a percentage of the population 15 years of age and over. The participation rate for a particular group (age, gender, marital status, etcetera.) is the number of labour force participants in that group expressed as a percentage of the population for that group.” (Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0459-01, footnote 10)
Regular beneficiaries “The number of beneficiaries represents a count of persons who qualified for employment insurance benefits during the Labour Force Survey reference week, usually containing the 15th day of the month.” “Includes people who receive regular income benefits whether or not they participate in one of three employment benefit programs, namely Skills Development Program, Job Creation Partnerships Program and Self-employment Program.” (Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0454-01, footnotes 4 and 1)
Rental “a dwelling constructed for rental purposes, regardless of who finances the structure.” (CMHC, Survey methodologies: Starts and Completions and Market Absorption)
Row “a 1-family dwelling unit in a row of 3 or more attached dwellings separated by a common or party wall extending from ground to roof.” (CMHC, Survey methodologies: Starts and Completions and Market Absorption, “Row (Townhouse)”)
Same-sample rent change “Percentage change in average rent provides an estimate of rent level movement by eliminating the compositional effects of new structures, conversions and survey sample rotation. The estimate is based on existing rental structures that were common to the survey sample for both the previous year and the current Rental Market Survey year.” (CMHC, Methodology for Rental Market Survey)
Semi-detached “1 of 2 dwellings located side-by-side in a building, adjoining no other structure and separated by a common or party wall extending from ground to roof.” (CMHC, Survey methodologies: Starts and Completions and Market Absorption)
Single-detached “a building containing 1 dwelling unit, which is completely separated on all sides from any other dwelling or structure.” (CMHC, Survey methodologies: Starts and Completions and Market Absorption, “Single-Detached”)
Unemployment rate “The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the labour force. The unemployment rate for a particular group (age, gender, marital status, etcetera.) is the number unemployed in that group expressed as a percentage of the labour force for that group.” (Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0459-01, footnote 9)
Vacancy rate “A unit is considered vacant if, at the time of the survey, the unit is physically unoccupied and available for immediate rental.” The survey covers “all row projects and apartment structures with three or more units” that are “privately initiated”. (CMHC, Methodology for Rental Market Survey)
Violent crime “The violent crime severity index includes all Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR2) violent violations.” (Statistics Canada, table 35-10-0026-01, footnote 18)

Adapted from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Starts and Completions Survey and Rental Market Survey, reference dates as shown on each chart. This does not constitute an endorsement by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation of this product.

Sources

File in data-raw/ What it is Source (link) Licence Sample Accessed
table_14100459.csv Table 14-10-0459-01, labour force characteristics by census metropolitan area, three-month moving average, seasonally adjusted: labour force, employment, unemployment rate and participation rate, with their standard errors, for the Kitchener - Cambridge - Waterloo CMA, Ontario and Canada Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence Labour Force Survey, a monthly sample of about 65,000 households 2026-09-25
table_14100458.csv Table 14-10-0458-01, the same by CMA, three-month moving average, not seasonally adjusted: unemployment and participation rates of people aged 15 to 24, 25 to 54 and 55 to 64 in the Kitchener - Cambridge - Waterloo CMA (no ten-year age groups are published for CMAs) Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence Labour Force Survey 2026-09-25
table_14100017.csv Table 14-10-0017-01, labour force characteristics by age, monthly, not seasonally adjusted: population, labour force and unemployment aged 15 to 24, 25 to 54, 55 to 59 and 60 to 64 (the last two added together), Ontario and Canada Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence Labour Force Survey 2026-09-25
table_14100454.csv Table 14-10-0454-01, Employment Insurance regular beneficiaries by census metropolitan category, monthly, seasonally adjusted Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence None (administrative records) 2026-09-25
table_33100270.csv Table 33-10-0270-01, experimental estimates of business openings and closures, monthly, seasonally adjusted: active, opening and closing businesses, all business-sector industries Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence None (payroll records) 2026-09-25
table_34100292.csv Table 34-10-0292-01, building permits by type of structure and type of work, monthly, seasonally adjusted: value of residential and non-residential permits in constant dollars (2023 dollars, deflated by Statistics Canada with the Building Construction Price Index), and the number of dwelling units residential permits create Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence None (survey of every municipality that issues permits) 2026-09-25
table_34100156.csv Table 34-10-0156-01, CMHC housing starts in centres of 10,000 and over, Canada, provinces and census metropolitan areas, seasonally adjusted at annual rates, monthly: total starts (the Region publishes no dwelling types), divided by 12 for the month’s seasonally adjusted figure Statistics Canada CMHC Licence Agreement for the Use of Data None (count of every start) 2026-09-28
table_18100205.csv Table 18-10-0205-01, New Housing Price Index, monthly, total (house and land) Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence Survey of builders 2026-09-25
table_17100152.csv Table 17-10-0152-01, population estimates on July 1 by census division: Waterloo (the Region), Ontario and Canada Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence None (demographic estimates) 2026-09-25
table_17100155.csv Table 17-10-0155-01, population estimates on July 1 by census subdivision (2021 boundaries): Wellesley Township, for its share of the Region’s population in the introduction Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence None (demographic estimates) 2026-09-27
table_17100153.csv Table 17-10-0153-01, components of population change by census division: births, deaths, immigrants, net non-permanent residents, net interprovincial and intraprovincial migration Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence None (demographic estimates) 2026-09-25
table_35100026.csv Table 35-10-0026-01, Crime Severity Index, violent and non-violent Crime Severity Index, annual Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence None (every police service reports) 2026-09-25
table_35100177.csv Table 35-10-0177-01, incident-based crime statistics by detailed violations, annual: rate per 100,000 population for all violations and for violent Criminal Code violations Statistics Canada Statistics Canada Open Licence None (every police service reports) 2026-09-25
cmhc_starts_dwelling_type.csv, cmhc_starts_intended_market.csv CMHC Starts and Completions Survey, monthly starts by dwelling type and by intended market, unadjusted (no seasonally adjusted version is published for the Region), Kitchener - Cambridge - Waterloo CMA, Ontario and Canada, via the cmhc package CMHC Housing Market Information Portal CMHC Licence Agreement for the Use of Data None (site visits to every start in the centres surveyed) 2026-09-25
cmhc_vacancy_rate.csv, cmhc_average_rent.csv, cmhc_average_rent_change.csv CMHC Rental Market Survey, October of each year: vacancy rate, average rent and same-sample average rent change, for all units and by unit size (studio, one, two, and three or more bedrooms), with CMHC’s reliability rating of each figure, via the cmhc package CMHC Housing Market Information Portal CMHC Licence Agreement for the Use of Data Rental Market Survey, a sample of privately initiated rental structures of three or more units in centres of 10,000 people or more 2026-09-25

Reliability

Items of note
Labour Force Survey: the unemployment, participation, employment and labour-force figures, overall and by age, are estimates from a monthly survey of about 65,000 households, and a CMA’s share of that sample is small; “estimates are based on smaller sample sizes the more detailed the table becomes, which could result in lower data quality”, and estimates below 1,500 people are suppressed. The CMA figures are three-month moving averages, which Statistics Canada publishes to steady them. The overall unemployment rate, participation rate and employment charts draw the Region’s 95% confidence interval from the published standard errors; the tables by age publish none. Seasonally adjusted series have “seasonal movements … eliminated” but still contain irregular movements; the figures by age are not seasonally adjusted, so their lines rise and fall with the seasons. (tables 14-10-0459, 14-10-0458, 14-10-0017)
Labour Force Survey, figures too unreliable to publish: Statistics Canada rates some of the Region’s monthly figures by age F, “too unreliable to be published”; within the five years shown, that is the unemployment rate of people aged 55 to 64 for November 2023 and September 2026, which leaves gaps in the Region’s line on that chart. (table 14-10-0458)
Employment Insurance revisions: “Estimates for the current and previous month are subject to revision”, so the last two months on the chart may change. (table 14-10-0454)
Business openings and closures: these are experimental estimates from payroll records. Statistics Canada flags the Region’s count of active businesses “use with caution” (E) for January 2022; that count is not used, which leaves a gap in the Region’s lines on the two per-100-businesses charts. The counts of openings and closures are not flagged in the months shown, so the net openings bars have no gaps. The chart’s 12-month average also uses the year before the first month shown, and there the Region’s openings for August 2020 are flagged E and not used, so no average can be worked out for July 2021 and the line starts in August 2021. (table 33-10-0270)
Seasonally adjusted building permits: Statistics Canada builds the adjusted totals by adding up adjusted parts (single and multiple dwellings; residential, industrial, commercial and institutional values), leaves a series with “no apparent seasonality” unadjusted, and “at the end of the year, the chronological series adjusted for seasonality are revised”, so past months on the permits charts can change each year. (table 34-10-0292)
Population estimates are revised: the latest year’s population and components are preliminary and the two or three before it updated; each is revised as later data come in, the last when the next census is counted. (tables 17-10-0152, 17-10-0153, 17-10-0155)
Crime Severity Index and incident rates: police-reported crime only; the previous year’s figures are revised each year; the index weights were updated with 2022 data; and some older records were imputed from the aggregate survey. (tables 35-10-0026, 35-10-0177)
Railway police undercount, 2021 and 2022: the “Other Federal Statutes” incidents the Canadian Pacific Railway Police reported for 2021 and 2022 “may be an undercount” and “should be interpreted with caution”. They are part of all violations, so of the overall and non-violent incident rates. (table 35-10-0177)
CMHC housing starts: CMHC counts starts every month in census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations, the centres of 10,000 people or more; smaller places are counted only quarterly, by sample. The Ontario and Canada figures here are for those centres.
CMHC Rental Market Survey: a survey each October of a sample of privately initiated rental apartment and row structures of three or more units, in centres of 10,000 people or more. CMHC rates each figure’s reliability; every figure charted is rated excellent, very good or good.
Rental Market Survey figures not shown: CMHC rates some of the Region’s figures “Fair (Use with Caution)”, or does not publish them, because the sample of units of that size is small. They are left out, which leaves a gap in the Region’s line: the rent change for all units in 2021 and for one-bedroom units in 2024. A unit size is charted only where the Region has at least four usable figures of the five, so there is no chart of the studio vacancy rate, or of the rent change for studios or for units with three or more bedrooms.

Reproduce the page: get the code and the data behind every chart (CSV files, in its data/ folder) from vital-statistics/ on GitHub.

R version: R version 4.6.1 (2026-06-24 ucrt)
OS:        Windows 11 x64 (build 26200)
Rendered:  2026-10-14
Quarto:    1.10.19

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