On the other hand, in Canada, a smaller share of the Canadian population live in cities now than did in 2011. Small towns saw the largest growth.
It would appear to me that the efficiencies cities can provide are at odds with the cost of being able to provide sufficient shelter for the people of those cities. The high cost of housing, which is a large concern in Canada's major cities, is pushing people from these cities.
I’m not sure if high housing costs are really a long-term detriment to urbanization. It’s seems to me it’s more a sign of mid-term market inefficiencies (it simply takes time for housing to be build, urban planning to happen, regulations to change, ...). When population flows stabilize things will hopefully balance out. Still, it’d be really interesting if people in Canada would really truly move back to the countryside (and not just the suburbs)
Interesting! Do you have a source for that? I’d like to learn more. Is it really small towns, or just suburbs/exurbs/bedroom communities? Regardless, it’s a good reason to focus on making housing more affordable in cities (build more!).
Statscan[1]. The actual numbers are by population size. I use the term town and city colloquially here (technically speaking Canada has towns with hundreds of thousands of people and cities with thousands).
> Regardless, it’s a good reason to focus on making housing more affordable in cities (build more!).
I am going to have to disagree. Seeing the economic activity spread out to smaller communities has been the best thing to happen to Canada in a long time. I would argue that much of the countries woes are directly related to the drive into the big city that happened 10-20 years ago. As we've seen in Germany, a decentralized economy comes with many benefits.
> As we've seen in Germany, a decentralized economy comes with many benefits.
I’m not sure if I would call it decentralized. The economic powerhouses remain the big metropolitan areas (which are sometimes just a bunch of merged mid-sized cities). But yes, some of the richest cities are quite small such as Wolfsburg and Ingolstadt. However, that’s mostly driven by a single big company and not really by a truly sustainable network of economic activity. In addition, I know few people who’d really love to live in Wolfsburg...
It would appear to me that the efficiencies cities can provide are at odds with the cost of being able to provide sufficient shelter for the people of those cities. The high cost of housing, which is a large concern in Canada's major cities, is pushing people from these cities.