Recent household trends in Elmwood

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/08/2016 (3632 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a previous article I looked at how the population of Elmwood had fallen between 1971 and 2006, in the context of greater changes in Winnipeg.

A few readers told me they found that surprising, given the difficulties they experience finding housing in the area. A person with a social science background suggested that changing family structures had led to less people living in each home in the area.

Following up on this idea, I looked through some data to see how household patterns in Elmwood stack up against the rest of the Winnipeg region.  

Good, detailed information on population and private dwellings (a term which includes most types of housing, such as detached homes, apartments, condos, etc.) can be found in the 2001, 2006, and 20!1 censuses. Divide the population of an area by the number of private dwellings and you get a very rough sense of how many people live in each unit.

You can find these statistics for the whole province, for metropolitans (cities and their nearby communities), and for postal code areas.

The area with homes whose postal codes start with R2L is basically the same as the historic Elmwood neighbourhood.   

In the Winnipeg metropolitan area there were roughly 2.4 people per private dwelling in 2011. Within city limits that number was lower, at 2.37 people, and in Elmwood it’s 2.28 people per dwelling.

Elmwood’s 2011 number had actually increased slightly from 2.24 back in 2001.

There are many likely reasons why for Elmwood’s lower number. Houses in Winnipeg’s suburbs and exurbs tend to be bigger, providing more room for more people. There are also a lot more apartments in mature, central areas of Winnipeg than on the outskirts.

There’s another piece to the puzzle , too. While Elmwood’s overall population declined between 1971 and 2006, there was an uptick of 463 people between 2006 and 2011 in the R2L area. As an area close to downtown with affordable houses, the neighbourhood may be attracting new, young, homebuyers and renters. Which may be why it’s a little harder to find housing in the area.

Seeing the stories present in data is important, as they can help us see what needs to be done to sustain a vibrant and affordable neighbourhood.

Dylon Martin is a community correspondent for Elmwood.