Life in Ontario

Overview

Ontario is a province of Canada – a province being similar to a US state. There are 10 provinces and 3 territories that make up Canada.

Each province and territory in Canada is unique and life in Ontario can be quite different from elsewhere in Canada. (What the difference is between a province and territory isn’t significant for the purposes of this article, but essentially provinces exercise constitutional powers in their own right, territories exercise delegated powers under the authority of the Parliament of Canada.)

Ontario is in many ways the powerhouse of Canada. It is the most populous. It has the largest, most diversified economy. It is the wealthiest. It is home to the national capital, Ottawa. And has the most federal government institutions.

Ontario surprising facts

Ontario’s southernmost point of land is roughly on the same latitude as Rome, Italy

Ontario is huge: from Toronto, you could drive to Disney World in Florida in less time than it would take you to drive to the closest western border of Ontario with Manitoba.

In contrast to the postcard perception of Canada being filled with majestic, towering mountains, Ontario is very flat. It has no significant mountains and its highest point is a mere 693 meters (2,274 feet) above sea level.

Ontario has produced more than its share of famous faces. Jim Carrey, Ryan Gosling, Justin Bieber, Mike Myers and Shawn Mendes to name a few.

Before Europeans arrived, about 90% of Southern Ontario was covered in forest. Original woodland is now only about 6% of the land.

In Toronto, 55% of residents were born outside Canada, and 170 languages and dialects are spoken.

Where is Ontario, Canada?

Ontario, Canada lies above and borders the US states of Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York (with a few Great Lakes and a river in the way). It borders the Canadian provinces of Manitoba in the West and Quebec in the East. It stretches northwards to the shores of Hudson Bay.

Ontario, Canada Map  

Ontario Geography

Ontario is the fourth largest province or territory of Canada by area (Nunavut, Quebec, Northwest Territories, Ontario). One might assume therefore that Ontario isn’t that big – but this is Canada… nothing is small.

Ontario’s total area is a bit over 1 million square kilometers. To put this in perspective, that’s about the same as combining the United Kingdom, Germany, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Denmark and Belgium whilst still having room to squeeze in a couple of Qatars! Ontario would occupy about one third of the whole of India.

People tend to think of Canada as being north, but, Ontario’s most northerly communities are close to the same latitude as London, UK. And its southernmost point of land is roughly parallel to Rome, Italy. Toronto is the same latitude as Marseille, France!

There are no mountains in Ontario. The highest point is Ishpatina Ridge at 693 meters (2,274 feet) above sea level in Temagami, Northeastern Ontario.

What it lacks in height however, Ontario makes up for in water. It has over 250,000 lakes, which contain approximately one-fifth of the world’s fresh water supply. With the exception of Lake Michigan, Ontario includes a portion of all the Great Lakes (i.e., Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario).

Ontario is home to Canada’s capital city, Ottawa and the provincial capital of Ontario is Toronto, the nation’s most populous.

Ontario Population

The population of Ontario is estimated to be around 14.7 million people as at Q4 2020 (according to Statistics Canada). It is the most populous province or territory of Canada by far, accounting for around 38% of Canada’s total population (the next biggest being Quebec with 8.6 million for comparison).

Where people live in Ontario

The population is heavily urbanised with more than 85% living in cities, towns and suburbs, particularly on the shores of the Great Lakes.

The largest concentration of people live in the metropolitan complex known as the “Golden Horseshoe” along the western shore of Lake Ontario, including the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls.

Outside this area, other population hubs include London, Kincardine and Windsor and Sarnia in southwestern Ontario. In eastern Ontario the biggest cities are Ottawa (the nation’s capital) and Kingston.

But as we said before, Ontario is big! Life in Ontario outside the towns and cities can be as isolated as you want it to be.

Demographics of Ontario

Ontario is by most measures a multicultural society. Whilst those with British Isles roots form the largest single group in Ontario, about 30% of Ontario’s inhabitants identified as visible minorities in the 2016 census.

Life in Ontario’s cities is particularly diverse. In Toronto, around 55% of the population was born outside of Canada. The only city in the world with a higher percentage is Miami, but, unlike Toronto where just about every corner of the world is represented, more than three quarters of immigrants in Miami are Latin American. Over 250 ethnicities and 170 languages are represented in the Toronto region.

But it’s not only in Toronto that strong multiculturalism flourishes, in Ottawa around a quarter of people are visible minorities, in Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo and London it’s around a fifth.

Languages

English is the official language of Ontario and around 68% of people report this as their mother tongue.

However, around 200 languages are spoken in Ontario with 4.7% of Ontario’s population speaking one of the Chinese languages and 4% French. Italian and Punjab make the 4^th and 5^th most spoken languages (260,000 and 214,000 people respectively).

Quality of life in Ontario, Canada

Quality of life is hard to quantify. Certainly in terms of the big ticket things that most people care about, life in Ontario is good. Healthcare and education are free at point of use, crime is low and most people are friendly and neighbourly. You can read more about a number of quality of life factors in Ontario in the sections below.

In an attempt to quantify quality of life in Ontario, we’ve used data from Numbeo who crowdsource data to produce a quality of life index using various data points: purchasing power, pollution, house price to income ratio, cost of living, safety, health care, traffic commute time and climate. Using this data Canada ranks as the 21^st best country for quality of life as below.

Rank	Country	Quality of life Index
1	Denmark	192.53
2	Switzerland	190.92
3	Finland	186.4
4	Australia	185.03
5	Netherlands	184.18
6	Austria	181.68
7	Iceland	180.74
8	New Zealand	178.22
9	Germany	177.25
10	Estonia	175.99
11	Norway	174.55
12	Oman	173.08
13	Sweden	172.18
14	Slovenia	169.81
15	United States	169.78
16	Spain	167.05
17	Japan	163.23
18	Portugal	162.46
19	United Kingdom	161.2
20	Lithuania	159.77
21	Canada	158.88
22	Qatar	156.9
23	Croatia	156.77
24	United Arab Emirates	155.41
25	Czech Republic	154.7
26	France	150.68
27	Ireland	150.16
28	Slovakia	149.93
29	Belgium	149.75
30	Saudi Arabia	148.94

Quality of life between Canadian cities varies as below. Those in bold are in Ontario.

Rank	City	Quality of life index
1	Victoria	188.67
2	Quebec City	179.87
3	Calgary	177.27
4	Vancouver	176.56
5	Ottawa	174.48
6	Kelowna	168.09
7	Halifax	167.22
8	Edmonton	167.01
9	Mississauga	160.24
10	Montreal	156.4
11	Regina	148.66
12	Toronto	148.46
13	Winnipeg	143.29
14/	Hamilton	142.06

Education

Like everywhere in Canada, if you live in Ontario there are no tuition fees for elementary and secondary education, it is tax funded.

There are four publicly funded school systems: English language secular schools, English language Catholic schools,  French language secular schools and French language Catholic schools.

According to The Fraser Institute, Ontario spends around $14,000 per student per year which is about average for Canada.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows that Canadian students are amongst some of the highest performing in the world (second only to Singapore).

Using PISA as the measure, Ontario has the second best public education system in Canada after Alberta.

Ontario, Canada Universities

There are 20 public universities in Ontario, the preeminent being the University of Toronto which is ranked the best in Canada and number 18 in the world by the Times Higher Education ranking. Top Ontario universities include:

World University Rank 2021	Canada Rank 2021	University	City
18	1	University of Toronto	Toronto
69	4	McMaster University	Hamilton
=145	7	University of Ottawa	Ottawa
201–250	9	University of Waterloo	Waterloo
201–250	9	Western University	London
251–300	11	Queen’s University	Kingston
401–500	17	York University	Toronto
501–600	19	Carleton University	Ottawa
501–600	19	University of Guelph	Guelph
601–800	22	Lakehead University	Thunder Bay and Orillia
601–800	22	Ryerson University	Toronto
601–800	22	University of Windsor	Windsor

Compared to other anglophone countries, tuition fees for Canadian universities are low. Each university can choose how much it wants to charge students for tuition and this varies from course to course and where the student if from (country and province).

The average Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident pays around CA$6,500 a year at undergraduate level for tuition. For international students it’s significantly more at around CA$20,000 per year.

Weather in Ontario

The climate varies markedly across Ontario given the size of the province but wherever you are, living in Ontario can be a bit of an adventure weather-wise!

Southern Ontario – where the vast majority of people live – has a climate with hot, humid summers and cold, snowy winters. However variation still exists here. Areas around the great lakes have less rainfall and snowfall and slightly higher temperate than eastern parts. For example, comparing Toronto and Ottawa:

In southern Ontario, winter weather can last into March and April, with cold weather still dominating and snow not being uncommon in April.

Life in Ontario generally starts to become a warmer affair in May and Summer is short but fairly intense from June to August.

September to October can offer pleasant weather with some warm days, especially in September. By November winter is starting to take hold and it’s getting cold.  

In northern Ontario, in Thunder Bay on Lake Superior, the average temperature in January is −15 °C and in July 18 °C; the annual precipitation is about 700 mm; and the annual snowfall is 2,160 mm.

Economy and Jobs in Ontario

The economy in Ontario is Canada’s most productive and generates 37% of the national GDP.

The bulk of employment in Ontario is centered around service industries and manufacturing with a significant number of high-skilled jobs in high tech and financial services

The service sector is the largest part of the Ontarian economy and employs about 5.3 million people. Toronto is Canada’s main financial services centre and has a significant and growing TV and film sector.

Ottawa as the federal capital has many federal institutions and as a result many public sector jobs.  

Unemployment rates are generally slightly lower in Ontario than Canada as a whole at around 5% (although this has increased since COVID-19).

Cultural life

Toronto is the cultural capital of Ontario and arguably English speaking Canada. After New York, it has the second largest variety of theatres and performing arts companies in North America.

However, cultural pedigree does not only exist in Toronto. Ontario has respected cultural highlights throughout the province. Ottawa has the National Gallery of Canada and the National Arts Centre. Stratford hosts the Stratford Festival, recognised worldwide for its Shakespeare productions. Niagara-on-the-Lake has a thriving theatre scene and hosts the Shaw Festival focusing on the works of Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries.  

Popular culture in general is heavily influenced by the US and this carries through to television, music and sports.

Canadians love their sport. The biggest sport by far in Ontario is Ice Hockey (simply referred to as “hockey” by Canadians). Other popular spectator sports include American football, soccer, baseball and basketball.