Differences Between Newfoundland and Canada

—SHOW NOTES—

◘ Using mostly data from Statistics Canada, Wayne compares various aspects of Newfoundland to Canada as a whole ◘

— Sources —

◘ Canadian Real Estate Association, REALTOR.ca, https://www.realtor.ca/ ◘ 

◘ Statistics Canada, Data products, 2021 Census, updated April 2, 2025,    https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/dp-pd/index-eng.cfm ◘ 

◘ Statistics Canada, Subjects, updated December 13, 2025, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/subjects?MM=1 ◘ 

Chapters

• 0:00 intro
• 0:13 comparisons from previous episodes
• 1:04 population growth and decline
• 1:50 housing
• 3:49 millennials and boomers and population
• 5:10 miscellaneous stats
• 6:19 outro

Transcript

Hi, I’m Wayne Jones. Welcome to Newfoundland Boy, a podcast about the Canadian province of Newfoundland. This is episode 58: Differences Between Newfoundland and Canada.

Some of the past episodes of the podcast have either looked at comparisons between the country and the province, and some have pointed out a wide range of distinctive characteristics of Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders. Everything from the land, to the people, to the food, and a few things in between. Some factual, some of it subjective, that is, from my point of view and according to my best assessments.

I thought that for today’s episode I’d look at a selection of interesting differences (and some similarities) by way of the wealth of statistics supplied by the national agency, Statistics Canada, specifically from the details of the last census that was done, which was in 2021 (the next one is in 2026).

I found some surprises and some things I expected to see. There are ways in which Newfoundland differs from Canada that I already knew about, but not numerically or statistically, but there are other things that were surprising to me either in the numbers themselves or in the size of the gap between the province and the country.

Let me start off with a basic one that you expect to find in any census: how much has the population changed? Newfoundland differs substantially here not only in the number but in the fact that its population is declining while Canada’s is increasing. Canada’s is up by 5.2%, and Newfoundland’s is down by 1.8%.

A couple of other housing statistics, I found interesting but not surprising. One is what is called population density, that is, as Stats Can measures it, the number of people per square kilometre. In Canada it’s 4.2 and in Newfoundland it’s only 1.4. This is likely largely due to the fact that the bulk of the population of the province is concentrated around the perimeter, near the Atlantic Ocean, in many small (and some not-so-small) communities. On the island, there are only two communities near the centre of the province and not particularly close to water, that is, Gander and Grand Falls–Windsor, that have any substantial population. Together they have about 25,000 people, which is still only about 5% of the total population.

Another obvious statistic that stands out is about the proportion of people who live in single detached houses. I personally own a unit in a four-story condo building in St. John’s, but that type of accommodation is unusual for the province. Almost 75% of Newfoundlanders live in detached houses, and a paltry 0.4% live in a building of five or more stories. This is evident whenever you window-shop through the real estate listings. A typical home is a freehold house, fully detached, with some land and generally a shed in the back, too. Condos are rare and therefore sometimes difficult to sell. I have seen them listed for sale for months and months, whereas detached houses are often involved in bidding wars. Many people buy condos as investments that they then rent out to students or others. In Canada as a whole by the way, only about 50% of people live in detached houses.

Also, in the midst of the raw numbers that Stats Can supplies, is information about the demographics of the country as a whole, the various generations, including projections on how the numbers of these various generations will increase or decrease over time. I found this interesting. Here is part of what they say:

The Canadian population is changing due to baby boomers getting older and immigration boosting numbers in the younger generations. These changes will have significant consequences, particularly on the labour market, services to seniors, and the consumption of goods and services. For the first time since the end of the baby boom, baby boomers … make up less than a quarter of the Canadian population, … [compared to about 40%] in 1966 … Millennials … are the fastest-growing generation … [and they account] for the largest share of the working-age population (33.2%) …

(Stats Can defines millennials as those born between 1981 and 1996, and boomers as those born between 1946 and 1965.)

And just to wrap up and stop drowning you with numbers and dates, I wanted to mention a couple of specific stats that show a big difference between Newfoundland and Canada:

·        Newfoundlanders are overall a bit older, the average age being 45, but only about 42 in Canada

·        Those who live in rural areas in Canada account for about 18% of the population, but 40% in Newfoundland

·        The English-French bilingualism rate is significantly different: 18% in Canada and about 5% in Newfoundland

·        The percentage of immigrants is about eight times greater in Canada than it is in Newfoundland: 23% versus only 3%

·        And, finally wrapping up—I mean it this time—Newfoundlanders earn at least 10% less than the whole country in after-tax income

And that’s it: you’re now free to disengage and get back to your word-based life.

By the way, as of today you can find Newfoundland Boy as usual wherever you get your podcasts, but now also on YouTube. Thanks for listening, and join me again next Saturday.