Here’s the first in a series of maps on Kitchener-Waterloo and the greater Waterloo Region from the 2016 Census. This map interprets population change per census tract between 2011 and 2016. Click on the full-screen icon in the lower-right corner to get the full view.
Some notes, here. Keeping in mind that we’re looking at population change:
- I’ve rounded out the coloring on the high end and low end to take in account the outliers at both ends of the spectrum. Some of the rural census tracts show a significant population change between censal years. Double-digit percentage swings on low populations are more common than in geographies with higher populations.
- There should be no surprise that the greatest positive change is occuring in the Waterloo and Kitchener cores.
- Kitchener is benefiting from the redevelopment of its core, but it still has a ways to go in terms of residential
- Waterloo near King and University is showing a significant positive change, given the construction of so much new housing in that area
- Remember that a no-change or little-change population density census tract doesn’t mean progress or decline. it just means no change. A good example of this is in some of the old-stock neighbourhoods around uptown and downtown, where change is sometimes minuscule. They might be right on the edge of the downtown/uptown core, but residential change can be hard to come by since the neighbourhoods are firmly established with single-dwelling units and households.
This map was developed with Tableau. I used to hack out maps with leaflet.js but turned to Tableau to improve development times. I’m not too happy with the speed in which it renders to the user, though. A switch back to Leaflet may be in order.