Photo: Mhalifu · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Peace River have higher incomes than those in 85% of Canadian towns
The average trip to work from Peace River is 16.5 minutes; 4.4% of commuters spend an hour or more getting there. Jobs were held by 76% of people aged 15 to 64 in Peace River in 2021, next to 73% for the middle of Canadian towns. Joblessness at the 2021 census: 7.9% of Peace River’s labour force, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns.
Where Peace River stands out on work
Higher incomes than most towns
The median household had $99,400 before tax in 2020; the middle of Canadian towns is $85,900. Household income ↓
A local job centre
With 3,920 jobs based in Peace River and 2,485 working residents, the ratio compares with 0.8 in the middle of Canadian towns. The daily tide ↓
Shorter trips than most towns
The average trip to work is 16.5 minutes (26 in the middle of Canadian towns), and 4.4% last an hour or longer. The trip to work ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census, its commuting tables, Employment Insurance and the Labour Force Survey.
Jobs & income in Peace River: graded A+
Better than 96% of Canadian towns on three measures together, #12 of 474 in Alberta.
Its strongest measure is trip times; its weakest, the share of 15-to-64s in work.
Graded against Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more; less unemployment and a shorter commute count in its favour.
How the grade works
Census 2021 measures, weighed equally against every Canadian town and neighbourhood of 2,500 people or more: the share of residents aged 15 to 64 in work, median household income (2020), the unemployment rate and the average commute. Each becomes a percentile; their average sets the letter.
The median household in Peace River had $99,400 in 2020
3 of the 5 other places of 2,500+ in Census Division No. 19 have a higher median. Set beside Alberta’s towns, where the median is $92,250, Peace River sits 8% above. Pandemic support paid in 2020, CERB first among it, is part of these before-tax incomes.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: median total income of households in 2020, before tax (a neighbourhood’s estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups).
Every working day, Peace River’s workforce grows by 51%
For every resident who leaves Peace River for work, about 6 people come in. The job is inside the municipality for 89% of its commuters (70% in the middle of Canadian towns).
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
Time on the road to work from Peace River
Timed exactly, the average is 15 minutes (Statistics Canada). The middle of Alberta’s towns averages 25.8 minutes. A quarter-hour or less for 66% of commuters, against 39% in the middle of Alberta’s towns.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: commuting duration in five bands; our average uses each band’s middle (75 minutes for an hour or more), so it runs about two minutes above Statistics Canada’s own.
1,718 people come into Peace River to work, most from Northern Lights County and Grimshaw
- Northern Lights County400
- Grimshaw340
- Northern Sunrise County290
- Peace No. 135185
- Edmonton55
- Nampa50
- Berwyn45
- Calgary40
- Smoky River No. 13040
- La Crète35
- Grimshaw95
- Northern Sunrise County35
- Nampa35
- Fort McMurray20
- Woodland Cree 22615
- Manning10
- Grande Prairie10
- Fairview10
44% of the people who work in Peace River live outside it, 400 of them in Northern Lights County, 65 km away. Going the other way, Grimshaw is the biggest single destination (95).
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
Work and the working-age population of Peace River
Of the 5 other places of 2,500 people or more in Census Division No. 19, 4 have a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
In October 2026, 63% of the wider area’s adults had a job, on the Labour Force Survey’s count. Pandemic rules were in force on census day, 11 May 2021; the Labour Force Survey shows how jobs have moved since.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: people in work of any age over residents aged 15 to 64, and the census unemployment rate (15 and over); the 25-to-54 rate is Statistics Canada’s own (98-10-0485). The Labour Force Survey and business counts are context, not grade inputs.
On foot, by bike, bus or train: 6.5% of Peace River’s commuters
The middle of Alberta’s towns has 2.5% walking; here, 6.2% do. Nearly everyone drives: 92% of commuters go by car, truck or van. Fewer worked at home than in the middle of Canadian towns: 9.4% against 21%. Transit barely figures here, against 3.5% in the middle of Canadian towns.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
In Census Division No. 19, 5% more people receive EI than in 2019
Peace River shares its EI beneficiaries numbers with the rest of Census Division No. 19.
That works out to around 3.8 beneficiaries per 100 people aged 15 to 64 across the division. Over the year to August 2026, the count fell by 7%. January 2021 was the busiest month, with 8,300 people on EI, 3.1 times 2019’s average.
Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance beneficiaries by census division (14-10-0323): all income benefits, not seasonally adjusted. EI counts are context, not part of any grade.
People receiving Employment Insurance each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
Walkability in Peace River: graded B
Better than 62% of Canadian towns on two measures together, #370 of 474 in Alberta.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
Peace River is 32nd of 686 Canadian towns of 5,100 to 9,700 people for jobs and income
| # | Place | People | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Labrador City Newfoundland and Labrador | 7,965 | 79% | 5.5% | $146K | A+ |
| 2 | Silverwood Heights Saskatchewan | 8,153 | 81% | 5.8% | $118K | A+ |
| 3 | North River Heights Manitoba | 7,228 | 82% | 8.4% | $143K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 10 | Altadore Alberta | 7,675 | 80% | 8.1% | $155K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 13 | Parkview Alberta | 5,729 | 80% | 9% | $155K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 27 | Glenora Alberta | 6,197 | 78% | 9.1% | $123K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 30 | Oromocto New Brunswick | 9,451 | 77% | 4.6% | $91K | A+ |
| 31 | Buena Vista Saskatchewan | 5,777 | 82% | 8.4% | $83K | A+ |
| 32 | Peace River Alberta | 7,220 | 76% | 7.9% | $99K | A+ |
| 33 | Trumpeter Area Alberta | 5,220 | 84% | 7.4% | $144K | A+ |
| 34 | East Zorra-Tavistock Ontario | 8,710 | 86% | 5.7% | $100K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 686 | Chertsey Quebec | 5,678 | 64% | 8.6% | $58K | D− |
Ordered by Jobs & income Grade: the top three, the places either side of Peace River, and others among Alberta’s towns.
Jobs near Peace River: the places around it
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peace River | 76% | 7.9% | $99K | 16.5 min | A+ | B |
| Northern Sunrise County 9.7 km | 80% | 6.2% | $100K | 25.7 min | A− | D− |
| Peace No. 135 11.3 km | 69% | 9.4% | $96K | 24.9 min | B− | C |
The people of each place: the share in work, unemployment, household income and the average commute, with both grades once they come.
What this data can and can’t tell you
What each figure measures for Peace River, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- Where people commute. Counts of workers with a fixed workplace, by where they live and where they work, both taken as whole municipalities; the jobs figure takes everyone who works here, wherever home is.
- Employment Insurance. A monthly count of Employment Insurance beneficiaries for the whole census division. It tracks the local job market, but it is not an unemployment rate.
- The Labour Force Survey. Monthly, and only for metro areas and economic regions. It is the up-to-date rate we set beside the census’s 2021 snapshot.
- In work. We divide the number of employed residents by the number aged 15 to 64. Workers past 64 still count on top, because the 2021 Census crosses work with age only for whole municipalities; in return, a retirement town’s pensioners don’t drag the rate down.
- Unemployment. The share of people 15 and over in the labour force, working or looking for work, who had no job on census day in May 2021.
- Household income. Half of households had more than this before tax in 2020, half less, counting every source of income. For a neighbourhood we estimate the median from the income brackets of its dissemination areas.
- Trip times. Built from banded answers: each commuter’s usual one-way trip counts as the midpoint of the band they chose, and the result tends to sit slightly higher than Statistics Canada’s average.
- Which towns we compare. Any town of 2,500 or more counts, and so does any city neighbourhood that size; the city as a whole and First Nations reserves don’t. The middle is the median.
Questions about work in Peace River
What is the unemployment rate in Peace River?
At the 2021 census 7.9% of the labour force had no job and was looking (9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns). The latest monthly survey, for the Banff-Jasper-Rocky Mountain House and Athabasca-Grande Prairie-Peace River economic region, gives 5.6% in October 2026.
What is the average household income in Peace River?
The census puts Peace River at $99,400 for 2020, before tax and at the median, against $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns.
How do people in Peace River get to work?
92% of commuters go by car, 6.2% walk and 0.3% cycle. On census day 9.4% of everyone in work stayed home to work.
How long is the commute from Peace River?
On average 16.5 minutes; 66% take under 15 minutes and 4.4% take an hour or longer.
Where do people in Peace River work?
89% work in Peace River itself; of those who leave, the most go to Grimshaw (95), then Northern Sunrise County (35).
How many jobs are there in Peace River?
About 3,920 people had their usual place of work in Peace River at the 2021 census, 1.6 for each working resident with a fixed workplace. In June 2026, 604 businesses with employees were on Statistics Canada’s count.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population (Census Profile) · Statistics Canada, tables 98-10-0458 and 98-10-0459 (commuting) · Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0323 (EI beneficiaries) · Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (14-10-0459, 14-10-0462) · Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Counts (33-10-1176) · grades: TownRatings. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).