Community Data
Data drives transformation and is the foundation of developing policy and enacting change, highlighting gaps, inequities and opportunities. SPRC Hamilton has a unique offering to the community and our partners in its specialized data research, collection and analysis. We help agencies, community groups, and residents to foster knowledge and build capacity on social justice and economic development issues.
One area of specialty is using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to deepen insights about our community. The use of GIS allows us to utilize location-based analytics to transform, visually explore and analyze data. Maps can reveal spatial patterns that might not be evident from tables and charts. Our maps and related products have been used as valuable decision-making tools by experts, policymakers, and community organizations. We offer analysis and visualization of socio-demographic trends using census data or community infrastructure and services information. We can also offer analyses of neighbourhood level data to identify issues, strengths, proposed solutions, and to develop community action plans. We also partner with agencies that want to map their anonymized client data, to better understand their geographic reach, and underserved communities. Our approach fosters the creation of participatory community maps, through data, to tell a story.
Through our two page Hamilton Social Landscape reports, we strive to give bite-sized yet insightful analysis and data about trends that impact Hamiltonians across the city. Other series that focus on short reports to reveal useful nuggets of information about our community include Hamilton Rental Landscape reports, and Demographic Shifts reports. Longer reports are also published by the SPRC either in four page/tabloid format, such as Out of Control: Ontario’s acute rental housing crisis — Lesson from Hamilton and Quebec City, or Money for Nothing, Debt for Free: Is the payday loan industry cashing in on Hamilton’s rise in precarious employment, or more exhaustive reports on specific topics, such as the Vulnerable Seniors in Hamilton report.
Research and data support planning and policy change, and SPRC Hamilton has a proud legacy of providing social research, analysis and community consultation for our not-for-profit partners.
Other important resources to access data about Hamilton:
2021 Census profile view selected neighbourhood data by entering postal code
Canada Learning Bond Participation in Hamilton
Introduction Over the course of several months in 2014 community partners in Hamilton collaborated to arrange and host a series of community events that would invite and assist eligible families...
Rental Housing Market Amplifies Inequality for Young Renters
Hamilton Social Landscape, Issue #30 Young renters face more challenges to finding affordable housing, according to the SPRC report from November 2022. Households led by racialized and Indigenous...
Renter Growth in Hamilton
Hamilton renter households are growing in all parts of the city. Growth of renter households across Hamilton was 11.5% from 2016 to 2021, a 5 times higher growth rate than the 2.3% growth in owner...
Inflation, Social Assistance, And Hunger In Hamilton
The combination of high inflation and frozen social assistance rates is causing a food insecurity emergency for Hamilton residents living in deep poverty across the city. Inflation in Ontario has...
2021 Census: Poverty In Hamilton By Major Age Groups
The 2021 Census showed that poverty rates have changed substantially across Canada including in Hamilton. The income data in this latest Census is from the 2020 tax year, and for almost a third of...
Show Us the Money: Income Security in Ontario 2022
On May 18, 2022, SPRC Hamilton and Community Development Halton hosted a virtual Town Hall called, Show us the Money: Income Security in Ontario: Preparing for Provincial Election 2022. Below is a...
Hamilton’s Rental Landscape: Understanding the rental housing crisis and solutions to end it
The current rental landscape is changing, and changing fast. Highlighting data on rental housing from a variety of sources, the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton is publishing a...
Rents and Affordability in Hamilton and Ontario
A recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows that a minimum-wage earner would have to work 54 hours a week to afford a one bedroom apartment in Hamilton. This troubling...
Rising Eviction Rates Threatening Tenants And Affordable Housing
Tenants are being squeezed by increasing rental prices as illustrated in the previous bulletins in this series (Rents and affordability in Hamilton and Ontario and Rents in Hamilton's...
Growth In Hamilton’s Renter Households
One reason rents are increasing at higher rates recently is that the number of renters in Hamilton has increased to 68,545 households in 2016. This figure is higher than any census year since 1991,...