Who are we? Census data shows Hamilton is older, richer and just as divided

Older, richer, and yet somehow just as polarized as ever.

That's the picture of Hamilton that emerges from an in-depth Spectator analysis of the latest census data released by Statistics Canada.

Hamilton has the third-highest median age of 12 urban centres across Ontario and the country, along with the third-highest proportion of seniors aged 65 and older, according to the 2021 census.

Nearly one in five Hamilton residents is at least 65 years old, behind Niagara Region, where 23 per cent of residents are seniors, and Burlington, where 21 per cent of its population is 65 and older. Hamilton's proportion of seniors grew from 17.3 per cent in 2016 to 18.3 per cent in 2021.

The Spectator's analysis compared Hamilton with Toronto, Mississauga, Burlington, London, Niagara Region, the Kitchener-Waterloo region, Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver.

All 12 of the urban areas saw their average age increase from 2016 to 2021.

We see that consistently across the country including Hamilton and that has huge implications for our labour market, where we get our workers, and do we have enough workers," said Bruce Newbold, a professor in McMaster's School of Earth, Environment and Society.

We also know that there's a huge proportion of people that are aged 55 to 64 so they're almost ready to retire," said Newbold. The question is who's going to fill those job vacancies when they do retire?

Employers should be really concerned about where they're getting their workers from next."

Household income

Median household income in the amalgamated city of Hamilton rose from $69,000 in 2015 to $86,000 in 2020, putting Hamilton right in the middle of the 12 urban areas.

Proportionally, that's an increase of 25 per cent over five years, which was the fourth-best performance of the 12 areas.

And yet despite the rising income tide, not all boats have been lifted equally.

Within Hamilton's borders, the same social and economic divisions highlighted by the Spectator's decade-long Code Red project continue between the former City of Hamilton and the five suburban communities that ring the periphery.

Code Red showed repeatedly the strong connections between poor social and economic outcomes and poor health, particularly in the lower central part of the former city.

Average income in the former city below the Mountain is 62 per cent less than Ancaster and 52 per cent less than Flamborough.

While the overall poverty rate in amalgamated Hamilton dropped by nearly a third from 15.3 per cent in 2016 to 10.8 per cent in 2021, significant disparities remain across the city.

The overall poverty rate is nearly four times higher in the lower former city than it is in Flamborough and Glanbrook, while child poverty is nearly five times higher than in Flamborough and four times higher than in Glanbrook.

More than one in five children in the lower former city continue to live in poverty.

Census tracts are the divisions used by Statistics Canada to break cities into smaller areas, like neighbourhoods. Of the 150 census tracts in amalgamated Hamilton, there are 10 census tracts where median household incomes were below the poverty threshold for a family of three.

All 10 of the census tracts are located in the central part of the lower city.

The disparities between poor parts of the city and wealthier parts of the city are stark," said Sara Mayo, a social planner with Hamilton's Social Planning and Research Council.

Is that something as a city we're comfortable with?" she asked. Are we OK with such vast disparities in income?"

Unacceptable' poverty among seniors

Most worrisome is the issue of people aged 65 and older living in poverty.

In all 12 of the urban areas examined by the Spectator, overall poverty rates dropped between 2016 and 2021, often by dramatic amounts.

Yet in nine of the 12 areas, the rate of seniors living in poverty either rose or stayed the same.

In Hamilton, 12 per cent of seniors lived in poverty in 2021, up from 11.6 per cent in 2016.

In the downtown census tract bounded by James, King, Cannon, and Wellington streets, 60 per cent of seniors are living in poverty.

Seniors need to become the focus of poverty reduction strategies," Mayo said. There hasn't been a focus on saying This is unacceptable.'"

Mayo said most low-income seniors are renters, which means they don't have a real estate asset they can sell to provide themselves a nest egg. At the same time, rents are rising in Hamilton, as are renovictions," where tenants are offered inducements or even pressured to move out so apartments can be renovated and re-listed at higher rents.

Low-income seniors are also often on fixed incomes, which are taking a beating with the recent high rates of inflation.

We don't want this poverty increase that we're seeing turn into a seniors' homelessness crisis," said Mayo. We want people to live their final years in dignity and not in a homeless shelter."

Newbold said a growing proportion of seniors are either returning to work or continuing to work.

Part of that is out of necessity," said Newbold. They need to continue to work just to pay the monthly bills."

Other highlights from the 2021 census include:

Wage disparities

• At the top end of the wage scale, there are significant differences across Hamilton's urban-suburban divide.

More than a quarter of all households in Ancaster earn at least $200,000 annually, compared to just 4 per cent in the lower part of the former City of Hamilton.

A quarter of all men in Flamborough and 28 per cent of men in Ancaster earn at least $100,000 per year. In the lower former city, the rate for men is 7 per cent.

Ten per cent of Hamilton's households earn at least $200,000 per year. Next door in Burlington, the rate is twice as high at 20 per cent, the highest of the 12 urban areas.

Men vs women

• There's still a wide gap between men and women in Hamilton when it comes to income parity.

Across the amalgamated city, women earn 27 per cent less than men on average. On Hamilton Mountain, women workers earn 36 per cent less than men.

There are only two census tracts in amalgamated Hamilton where the average income of women is higher than men, and both of those census tracts are in the lower inner city.

Both of the census tracts have high rates of poverty and both have high proportions of income that comes from government programs, such as pensions, employment insurance and disability supports.

The proportion of men earning at least $100,000 across Hamilton is twice as high as the proportion of women.

COVID supports

• About 30 per cent of all people aged 15 and older in Hamilton received COVID-related income support in 2020 from the federal government's Canada Employment Response Benefit (CERB).

Nearly 6 per cent of all income in Hamilton for 2020 came from COVID support payments, while almost 19 per cent of all Hamilton income came from government transfers, including CERB.

Not surprisingly, the program had a profound impact on the amount of income that came from so-called government transfers, which includes programs such as Old Age Security, employment insurance and disability supports.

All 12 of the urban areas saw large jumps in 2020 in the proportion of income that came from government transfers. In 2015, Calgary's proportion of income from government transfers was 5.4 per cent. In 2020, it was almost 14 per cent.

Mayo said COVID showed that governments can intervene in meaningful ways in a time of crisis.

There was political will to make sure that the negative impacts that were inevitable were reduced among the most vulnerable people in our society," Mayo said.

Can we think about continuing to do that in other ways after the pandemic? Are there other ways to lift everyone up in our city and not have such big disparities?"

Steve Buist is a Hamilton-based investigative reporter at The Spectator. sbuist@thespec.com