View source for Housing/Canada/Analysis

:<small>{{pn|''This page might need to be re-organized.''}}</small>

Does Canada have enough housing? This page is a (somewhat incomplete) [[housing supply analysis]] using [https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/index-eng.cfm Canadian census data].

==All of Canada==

{|class="wikitable"
|''code''
|''count''
|''definition''
|-
!colspan="3"|Supply
|-
|st
|132060
|studio unit
|-
|1b
|2124485
|1-bedroom unit
|-
|2b
|3829965
|2-bedroom unit
|-
|3b
|4982900
|3-bedroom unit
|-
|4b
|3909525
|4-bedroom or more
|-
!colspan="3"|Demand
|-
|s0
|6850005
|Singles with '''no''' children
|-
|c0
|4286165
|Couples with '''no''' children
|-
|s1
|1019940
|Single parents with '''1''' child
|-
|c1+
|4290420
|Couples with '''1 or more''' children
|-
|s2+
|666400
|Single parents with '''2 or more''' children
|}
<small>Data source: <cite>Canadian Census 2021</cite> https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&GENDERlist=1,2,3&STATISTIClist=1&HEADERlist=0&DGUIDlist=2021A000011124&SearchText=Canada<!-- TODO: upload the spreadsheet with the formulas that calculated these numbers --></small>

The '''Supply''' includes all types of housing - including apartments, condos, townhouses and houses. Categorized by the number of bedrooms.

<!-- TODO: turn the table into a bar graph -->
<!-- XXX: maybe include vacant units as a separate column in the above table, and add them in a lighter-but-similar color for each unit type in the bar graph? i can only do this if there is data on the number of bedrooms in vacant units -->
<!-- TODO: make another table/graph with the same data shown as people and bedrooms.
- be sure to show the total number of bedrooms and the total population
- categorize people as "single", "in a couple with no children", "in a family of 2 (single parent + child)" "in a family of 3 (parent(s) + child(ren))", "in a family of 4 or more (parent(s) + children)"
- categorize bedrooms as "studio", "in a 1-bedroom unit", "in a 2-bedroom unit", "in a 3-bedroom unit", "in a 4-or-more-bedroom unit", "in a vacant unit (number of bedrooms estimated)"
- clarify again that units can be apartments or condos or houses etc.
-->

The first thing to notice is there are a lot of single adults {{x|and also a lot of childless couples}}, and not very much single-person housing {{x|and also not enough housing made for childless couples}}. Thus, most singles end up either...
* Living with roommates. {{x|In some cases, there is no other option but to find roommates on semi-anonymous websites. This comes with safety issues and difficulty trusting whether the roommate will even pay their part of the rent.}}
* Living with parents, even in adulthood. {{x|Some of these single adults may not even be counted "s0" statistic above - some might be counted as "children" in families. The Canadian census defines "child" in a way that has no age cutoff.}}
* Hastily moving in with someone they ''just started dating'', before really knowing whether it's right.
* Living alone in a bigger, and more expensive place than needed.

The last one also takes away housing from families.

Solutions:
* [[subdividing]] apartments into studios
* [[subdividing]] suburban houses into duplexes
Nuances:
* Obviously this doesn't mean subdividing ALL the homes - just enough to meet the demand.
* Subdivision would ''not'' take housing away from families. It would make ''more'' housing available to families. {{p2|(see why)|Many of today's family-sized houses are inhabited by single adults who ''would'' sell their home and move into something smaller (i.e. 1-bedroom condo), but can't find an affordable one (because as the table shows, there simply aren't enough - today's high prices are the market's way of signalling that). By subdividing a few family-sized houses into three 1-bedroom condos, these single adults would move there, freeing up the other family-sized houses for families. Sorry if any of this seems unclear - I'll make a diagram soon.}}

<!-- TODO: ==Custom region== : upload the spreadsheet I used for ==All of Canada==, and provide some minimal instructions how to use it for other regions -->

==More considerations==

<q>More than 235,000 people in Canada experience homelessness in any given year, and 25,000 to 35,000 people may be experiencing homelessness on any given night.</q> - [https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2021001/article/00002-eng.htm]

The census data used earlier, doesn't include ''vacant'' homes. A quick estimate is that 1.3 million homes are vacant, or 8% of the [[housing]] stock. [https://betterdwelling.com/new-data-shows-canada-still-has-1-3-million-vacant-homes-some-improvements-seen/] {{x|This stat would benefit from having a more nuanced breakdown by ''type'' of vacancy, such as investment homes vs cottages etc.}}

Also not included: [[office]] buildings, which ''could'' be [[Commercial to residential|repurposed into housing as well]].

''You can help expand this page by joining the {{talk}}.''

<!-- TODO: refactor the analysis to include vacant homes supply -->