Commuting Patterns and Places of Work of Canadians, 2006 Census: Findings

• Highlights
  • National, provincial and territorial portraits
  • Portraits of census metropolitan areas and their municipalities
• National, provincial and territorial portraits
• Commuting patterns
  • Commuting distances continue to rise
  • The proportion of drivers is decreasing
  • Increase in proportion of workers using public transit or getting to work as a passenger in a car
  • A lower proportion of Canadians are walking, and a slightly higher proportion are cycling
• Place of work status
  • Fewer people working at home
  • Falling employment in agriculture is reflected in a declining number of farmers, farm managers and general farm workers working at home
  • More people with no fixed workplace address
  • The construction sector accounts for one-third of the gain in workers with no fixed workplace address
  • Working in a province or territory other than the usual place of residence
• Portrait of census metropolitan areas and their municipalities
• Place of work
  • Sharp increase in the number of workers in the CMAs of Barrie, Kelowna and Calgary
  • Employment continues to grow faster in the peripheral municipalities of CMAs than in their central municipalities
  • Sharp increase in the number of workers in the municipalities of Vaughan, Surrey and Laval
  • Location of jobs in the metropolitan territory: many jobs in the peripheral sectors of large urban areas
  • Despite the decentralization of workers, the central neighbourhoods remain major clusters of workplaces
  • Municipalities where workers live are not always the ones where the jobs are concentrated
• Commuting patterns
  • Residents of the Oshawa CMA have the longest commute
  • Recently built dwellings are farther from places of work in the CMAs
  • Modes of transportation
  • Cars used less than in the past years in most CMAs
  • Public transit is mainly an option in the largest CMAs
  • Public transit increases considerably in Calgary
  • In large metropolitan areas, public transit is used more frequently in Canada than in the United States of America
  • Workers in Victoria more likely to walk and cycle to work
  • Younger workers use more sustainable transportation
  • Some progress in the use of sustainable transportation among workers living far from their place of work
  • Commuters to Vaughan, Surrey and Laval made little use of sustainable transportation
• Portrait of the largest census metropolitan areas in the country's regions
  • Halifax
  • Montréal
  • Toronto
  • Calgary
  • Vancouver

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