A new report uses an innovative mapping tool to paint a vivid picture of Ontario’s demographic changes due to an aging population, unstable unemployment opportunities, fluctuating populations and growing ethnoracial diversity. The report is designed to be a resource for program planning, needs assessments, advocacy initiatives, public policy development, research projects and other purposes.
To create a snapshot of these changes, the report from the Social Planning Network of Ontario focuses on five themes: diversity, the aging population, economy and recession, housing, and electoral participation. Rather than featuring standard provincial maps, the report uses a unique cartogram tool to produce maps where land areas reflect the size of a population or group. The report includes a focus on people living with physical and mental health disabilities, ethnoracial diversity, immigrant communities, Francophones and Aboriginal communities.
The Social Planning Network of Ontario is a coalition of social planning councils, community development councils, resource centres and planning committees from different Ontario communities. This project was funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
See “Ontario’s Social Landscape: Socio-Demographic Trends and Conditions in Communities across the Province,” Social Planning Network of Ontario, June 2010, available at www.spno.ca.