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
Rental Housing in Hamilton’s Neighbourhoods
In Canada, a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a one-bedroom apartment in only 70 out of 795 neighborhoods across the country, 9% of neighbourhoods examined in the CCPA report,...
Primary Private Rental Stock In Hamilton
The 68,545 rental dwellings in Hamilton identified in the 2016 Census can be divided into the three main types of rental units: those in private primary rental buildings, those in private secondary...
Rental Quality Concerns
The lack of new builds or reinvestment into aging rental stock in Hamilton has led to more and more tenants living in substandard housing. The Canadian Census asks renters and homeowners if their...
Not-for-profit Housing
Housing is key to social welfare, and in fact Canada now recognizes housing as a human right in legislation, but “housing is famously the shaky of ’wobbly pillar’ of the welfare state in that it is...
Hamilton’s Rental Landscape: Trends In Hamilton’s Rental Stock
Lack of new builds or reinvestment into aging rental stock in Hamilton has led to more and more tenants living in substandard housing. The Canadian Census asks renters and homeowners if their...
Don’t Stop Now! Progress in Poverty Reduction: Analysis from Hamilton and Ontario, 1996-2016
This four page report highlights the declining poverty rate in Hamilton, from 21.9% in 1996 to 16.6% 2016, mirroring a provincial trend. The report points to policies and economic changes that have...
Out of Control Rental Housing Report
Housing affordability for tenants has reached crisis levels in Hamilton and other Ontario communities. With less than a week left in the provincial election campaign, all political parties need to...
South Mountain Community Engagement Initiative Evaluation Second Survey Results
In 2015, The Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton (SPRC) partnered with three social housing providers, Hamilton East Kiwanis Non-Profit Homes Inc., Victoria Park Community Homes Inc....
Hamilton For All
The Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council and the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion launched a new public education campaign, #HamiltonForAll, that aims to stimulate dialogue and open minds by...
The Canada Learning Bond in Hamilton: A Pilot Project Report
Over the course of several months in 2014 a number of community partners in Hamilton collaborated to arrange and host a series of community events that would invite and assist eligible families with...