• Kingston is the largest city in Eastern Ontario, with a growth rate well below the provincial average and below that of Eastern Ontario. Kingston’s large area relative to its population gives it a low population density, a characteristic Kingston shares with most of the rest of Eastern Ontario.

• On a percentage basis, the city has a larger rural population than most comparator cities and of equal percentage to the province as a whole.

• The median age of Kingston’s population is in the mid‐range for comparator cities and is significantly lower than Eastern Ontario counties. Kingston has a slightly smaller 0‐19 age group than other comparable communities, has about the same proportion of its population in the core labour force (age 25‐64) as these communities, and has a slightly larger proportion of retirement age citizens (65 and over) than comparable cities but not Eastern Ontario as a whole. Over the long term, this means Kingston will have to increase the relative size of the “young family” contingent, import labour or convince more of the 20‐24 age group to stay in the community.

• Kingston’s population is generally well‐educated
  in comparison to other cities or the surrounding
  rural areas. This is concentrated in the university‐
  educated group rather than the college‐educated
  or skills trades/apprenticeship categories. In this
  latter category, Kingston trails every county in
  Eastern Ontario and some of the comparator cities.
  As a result, it could be said that the rural areas
  need the educated population in Kingston and Kingston needs the college‐ educated/skilled trades population in the surrounding rural areas.

• When considering the presence of visible minorities, Kingston is in the middle of the pack of comparator cities, behind “benchmark” cities such as London, Guelph, Ottawa, Waterloo and Oshawa, and well ahead of all Eastern Ontario counties.

• In comparison to other similar cities, Kingston has a more mobile population than most (measured by the percentage of the population having moved across municipal boundaries in the past year) and is in the upper end of the spectrum of mobility for Eastern Ontario counties.

• Despite Kingston’s educational advantage, average individual earnings in Kingston are lower than in most comparator cities but higher than most Eastern Ontario counties. Average family incomes in Kingston are lower than in some – but not all – comparable cities. Note that these conclusions are based on either 2000 census data or 2005 estimates.

• Based on the 2006 Census Canada calculation of the percentage of households with incomes below the Low Income Cut‐off (LICO) level, Kingston has a higher proportion of its households in low income categories (15.4 per cent) than virtually all other comparator cities, higher than the provincial average, and higher than all 13 counties in Eastern Ontario.

• Kingston shares the characteristic of having a reasonably large percentage of wage‐ earners bringing home less than $20,000 a year with many other Eastern Ontario communities. The percentage of low‐income earners in Kingston (44.2%) is higher than in every other comparator city outside the region. A persistent social assistance caseload in Kingston and South Frontenac (especially given the strength of the national economy) suggests that there may be factors at work in Kingston that are not present to the same degree elsewhere. Similarly, Kingston has a smaller percentage of its wage‐earners in the $60,000 and over category than all other comparator cities outside the region. However, at 11.8 percent, Kingston has a larger percentage of high‐income earners than most Eastern Ontario counties.

• Median family and household incomes (measures of distribution of income “wealth” in a community) are generally lower in Kingston than in the province as a whole, and are in the middle of the pack of other similar‐sized cities. However, median incomes are higher in Kingston than in most Eastern Ontario communities. There is some evidence that some counties have narrowed the median income gap in the 2000‐2005 period.

• Kingston’s labour force participation rate is in the middle of the pack of comparator cities but higher than most Eastern Ontario counties. Participation rates have declined in the 2001‐2006 period across much of Eastern Ontario, including Kingston.

• Compared to the comparator cities, Kingston’s unemployment rate in 2006 was higher than most. Similarly, Kingston’s unemployment rate was higher than virtually all Eastern Ontario counties. This situation is virtually unchanged from 2001. Nonetheless, Kingston’s unemployment rate declined slightly in the 2001‐2006 period, as did the rates of about half of the comparator cities and two thirds of the counties of Eastern Ontario. Compared to the provincial average in 2006, Kingston and much of Eastern Ontario still suffers from higher unemployment rates.

• On virtually every measure studied, including or excluding Kingston from Eastern Ontario‐wide calculations has virtually no impact on economic indicators. This is a function of two facts: first, Kingston’s population is a much smaller share of the Eastern Ontario total than Ottawa and as a result, does not influence such statistics as averages. Secondly and just as important, on many measures, Kingston’s profile does not differ markedly from the rural areas of Eastern Ontario. Certainly, there are far greater differences between Kingston and other similar‐sized Ontario cities than between Kingston and Eastern Ontario counties.

• Over the 2001‐2006 period, Kingston’s experienced labour force grew but at a slower pace than in most other comparator cities and most Eastern Ontario counties.

• Since 2001, Kingston’s employment patterns by sector have changed, with agriculture and resource‐based industries, and manufacturing losing significant ground, and the services industry (both public and private) making significant gains. Finance and real estate, and health, social services and education, and business services have made the biggest gains. However, these gains are often not as large as those of other comparator cities or even many Eastern Ontario counties.

• While Kingston has a reasonably strong representation of its workforce in managerial, and business, finance and administration occupations, certain comparator cities have exhibited stronger performance in this area (ex. Waterloo, Ottawa). The same pattern appears to hold for employment in the natural and applied sciences and related occupations. Given the strong educational attainment of the Kingston population, this pattern may warrant further investigation.

• Occupations which are under‐represented in Kingston (in comparison to other cities and nearby rural counties) are primary processing, and processing, manufacturing and utilities. This suggests that if Kingston wishes to grow private enterprise in the natural resource processing and manufacturing arena, or to create clusters in these areas, the city will need to acquire or attract management talent as well as support “anchor” companies around which clusters could be built.

• From an occupational representation perspective, Kingston’s strength is in three categories: 1) health, 2) social services, education, government service and religion, and 3) arts, culture, recreation and sports. Sales and service occupations are also strongly represented but not quite as dramatically as the preceding categories.

Population, Growth and Related Characteristics

• At 117,707 residents, the City of Kingston is the largest city in Eastern Ontario (not including that nation’s capital Ottawa) and in the middle of the pack of selected comparator cities in Southern Ontario. London, Barrie, Ottawa and Oshawa are larger; Guelph, Waterloo, Sarnia, Belleville, Brockville and Peterborough are smaller (with populations ranging from 21,957 to 114,943).

• Kingston’s population growth rate in the 2001‐2006 period (2.64 percent) was lower than most other comparator cities; only Sarnia and Oshawa had lower growth rates. Barrie and Waterloo had the highest growth rates (23.8 and 12.6 per cent respectively). Eastern Ontario (excluding Ottawa) had a growth rate of 3.53 per cent1. This is significantly lower than the province as a whole, which saw a 6.6 per cent growth rate in the same period.

• Kingston’s geographic area is 450 km2, which is the largest of any comparator city. As a result, the city’s population density (260.23 persons/km2) is lower than all other cities but Belleville (197.85 person/ km2. Eastern Ontario (excluding Ottawa) has a much lower average population density: 25.25 persons/km2.

• Six (6) percent of Kingston’s population lives at rural route addresses2 which is higher than Guelph, Waterloo, Ottawa, Oshawa or London. Sarnia, Barrie, Belleville, Peterborough and Brockville have higher proportions of the population in rural areas (from seven to 18 per cent). Clearly, the rural areas outside the major cities have much higher proportions of rural route delivery. The proportion of rural route addresses for Ontario as a whole is six (6) per cent.