Universities and Neighbourhood Change across the Canadian Urban System, 1981–2016

Co-authors: Nick Revington; Cédric Brunelle

Project summary

This working paper studies how neighbourhoods near major universities differ from other neighbourhoods across the Canadian urban system over 1981–2016. Existing evidence is often based on single-case studies; this project provides a comparative view across many urban areas using a consistent neighbourhood geography.

Data

The analysis uses quinquennial Canadian census data from 1981 to 2016 with consistent census tract boundaries, covering Canadian Census Metropolitan Areas and tracted Census Agglomerations with universities. It evaluates 19 indicators grouped into four themes: housing markets, population age, education/employment, and social diversity.

Approach

We compare university-adjacent census tracts to other census tracts within the same urban area using mean-difference tests (t-tests) and track how these differences evolve over time and by urban region size.