Extent, location and profiles of continuing gentrification in Canadian Metropolitan Areas, 1981-2001

This study looks at the changes in 10 Canadian CMAs between 1981 and 2001 and builds on the work of other Canadian researchers to show how the extent, location and nature of gentrification processes have continued since the 1970s. The analysis of census data from 1981 and 2001 identifies gentrifying tracts and compares them with the neighbourhoods that are recognised by local housing market analysts as gentrifying and with the neighbourhoods that are clearly not gentrifying. Gentrification between 1981 and 2001 involves between 5 and 12 per cent of all tracts in the CMAs and about 25 per cent of inner-city tracts depending on the CMA examined and the definition of gentrification used. The spatial pattern of tracts gentrifying between 1981 and 2001 is more extensive than areas known to have gentrified during the 1970s. The extent of gentrification does not vary by city size. The profiles of gentrifying tracts show large increases in their proportion of young adult households, dramatic reductions in household size, rapid increases in university educated population, and had more mobile populations between 1981 and 2001. The gentrification of the inner city reduces population density while increasing dwelling unit density. Gentrification in Canada is changing the composition of the inner city but is not repopulating the inner city and it is contributing to the overall decentralisation process in Canadian cities.