KEEPING TRACK OF OUR CITY’S HEALTH

Vital Signs report shows challenges face Toronto,

Annual Vital Signs report lists managing needs of aging population, boosting youth employment as keys to Toronto’s long-term well-being,

WHO ARE WE AND WHAT SHAPE ARE WE IN?

THE CITY: Toronto refers to the former Metropolitan Toronto, which consisted of the former municipalities of Toronto, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York and the Borough of East York.

In 2012, Toronto (population 2,791,140) edged past Chicago to become the fourth largest city in North America after Mexico City, New York and Los Angeles.

THE TORONTO REGION (population 5,941,488) refers to the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), an area slightly smaller than the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and the largest metropolitan area in Canada. Almost half the population of the Toronto Region resides in the city of Toronto.

GREATER TORONTO AREA (population 6,054,191) Almost 1 in 5 Canadians — 18.1% of the total population - live in the GTA, which accounted for 72% of total Ontario population growth from 2006 to 2011.

Toronto’s population of seniors (65 +) is projected to grow by 1/3 — from 376,570 in 2011 (14.4% of the total population) to almost half a million (17% of the total population) by 2031.

In 2011, one in 12 Toronto residents had arrived in the country in the previous five years. Toronto has more than twice the proportion of recent immigrants as Canada (8.2% vs. 3.9%).

In 2011, almost 3 in 10 (27%) Torontonians were second generation (Canadian-born with at least one parent born outside the country). Together, first- and second-generation residents make up more than three-quarters of the Region’s population.

Half of Torontonians (49%) self-identified as visible minorities in 2011, compared to 19% of the Canadian population. By 2031, nearly 63% of the GTA population will be visible minority.

Population growth in Toronto’s downtown core more than tripled between 2006 and 2011 (from 4.6% to 16.2%). Suburban population growth dropped from 18.6% to 13.7% over the five years.

Nearly half (47%) of the downtown population is 20 - 39 years old, compared to 25.8% across the GTA suburbs. The median age in the city core has dropped to the mid-30s.

WHAT IS THE WORLD SAYING ABOUT TORONTO?

“Toronto is one of the best places to live in the world”: As in 2012, Toronto ranked 4th on

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2013 Liveability Ranking of 140 global cities. The annual ranking measures liveability across: stability, healthcare, education, culture and environment, and infrastructure.

“Toronto is a City of Opportunity”:

In 2012, the Toronto Region ranked highly again, third, after New York and London among the 27 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Cities of Opportunity, balancing economic clout, education, health and security. “Toronto is one of the top ten economically competitive cities around the globe”:

On The Economist’s list of cities likely to remain highly competitive to the year 2025, Toronto was #10 out of 120 in 2013, the only Canadian city in the top 25.

HOW STRONG IS TORONTO’S ECONOMY?

Toronto maintained impressive economic momentum through 2012:

For the third straight year, the Toronto Region ranked first among Canada’s largest 25 metropolitan areas on the Canadian Metropolitan Economic Activity Index. Economic diversity, robust population growth (2% yearover-year) and an active construction sector has kept the city in the top five for most of the last 7 years.

On the 2013 Board of Trade Scorecard on Prosperity, the Toronto Regionplaced fourth among 12 North American metros on the measure of human capital (aspects of the population and labour force such as unemployment rates, gender income ratios, health and safety, and education). Among 30 big metropolises in North America (populations over 2 million), Toronto was one of the least expensive places to do business in 2012:

Only Montréal achieved a lower score than Toronto on the 2012 KPMG assessment of international business location costs. The tool evaluates 26 business costs for 19 different business operations in 110 global cities.

GDP grew by 1.88% in Toronto in 2012 and across the Toronto Region, by 2.1%. This rate is ahead of the Canadian economy, which grew 1.68% and Ontario, which experienced only 1.37% growth.

The 184 high-rises under construction in Toronto in January 2013 equalled the combined total of highrise construction in New York City, Houston, Chicago, Miami, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

For the second year in a row, Toronto Region hotels booked more than 9 million room-nights, as 9,910,000 overnight visitors chose the Region for business and pleasure in 2012, a 1.4% increase over 2011.

In another indication of economic recovery, personal bankruptcies declined 41% and business bankruptcies dropped 56.5% over the period 20082012. The City of Toronto’s 2013 $9.420 billion operating budget increased:

The operating budget increased $15 million from $9.405 billion in 2012. Higher expenditures of $324 million (largely labour costs, inflation, capital financing and transit growth) were offset by reserve draws and revenue increases including increased user fees, a TTC fare increase, and growth in property tax assessments.

More than two-thirds (68%) of Toronto’s 2013 $2.27 billion capital budget will be spent on transit and transportation.