Photo: Gerry Thomasen from Nanaimo, Canada · CC BY 2.0Households in Electoral Area B, Strathcona earn less than in almost any other Canadian town
In Electoral Area B, Strathcona, 77% of residents aged 15 to 64 were working in May 2021, next to 73% for the middle of Canadian towns. The average trip to work from Electoral Area B, Strathcona is 17.8 minutes; 4.1% of commuters spend an hour or more getting there. 10% of the labour force in Electoral Area B, Strathcona was out of work at the 2021 census, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns.
The work numbers behind Electoral Area B, Strathcona
Lower incomes than most towns
At $49,000 before tax in 2020, the median household compares with $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns. Household income ↓
More jobs than the typical town
With 210 jobs based in Electoral Area B, Strathcona and 200 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 17.8 minutes (26 in the middle of Canadian towns), and 4.1% 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.
Electoral Area B, Strathcona grades C+ for jobs and income
Better than 43% of Canadian towns on three measures together.
Its strongest measure is trip times; its weakest, household income.
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.
What households earned in Electoral Area B, Strathcona: $49,000 in 2020
Every other place of 2,500 or more in the Strathcona census division has a higher median. Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s median is 44% below the middle of British Columbia’s towns ($86,900). The year is 2020: emergency benefits like CERB count in these incomes, and they raised the bottom of the range.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: median total income of households in 2020, before tax (a neighbourhood’s estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups).
Before tax, 2020: lower than in almost any Canadian town.
In and out of Electoral Area B, Strathcona: the working day evens out
84% of residents who commute work inside the municipality, against 70% in the middle of Canadian towns.
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
The length of the trip to work in Electoral Area B, Strathcona
Timed exactly, the average is 17.3 minutes (Statistics Canada). The middle of British Columbia’s towns averages 26.4 minutes. Trips under 15 minutes: 60%, more than the 39% in the middle of British Columbia’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.
41 people come into Electoral Area B, Strathcona to work, most from Electoral Area C, Strathcona and Tork 7
- Electoral Area C, Strathcona10
- Tork 710
20% of the people who work in Electoral Area B, Strathcona live outside it, 10 of them in Electoral Area C, Strathcona, 17 km away. The main destination the other way is Electoral Area C, Nanaimo, with 10.
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 Electoral Area B, Strathcona
All 3 other places of 2,500 people or more in the Strathcona census division have a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
Counting those looking for work too, 52% of people aged 15 and over were in the labour force. Take in all adults, retirees with them, and only 47% were working. The Labour Force Survey’s employment rate for the wider area was 56% in October 2026. May 2021, when the census was taken, was a pandemic spring; unemployment has come down since, as the Labour Force Survey records.
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.
Without a car, 11% of Electoral Area B, Strathcona’s commuters get to work
Transit barely figures here, against 3.5% in the middle of Canadian towns. The middle of British Columbia’s towns has 0.9% cycling; here, 5.5% do. The car takes 81% of commuters here, under the 87% in the middle of British Columbia’s towns. Only 18% worked at home on census day, against 21% 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).
EI claims in the Strathcona census division are back near their 2019 level
For each 100 residents of working age in the division, about 4 are on EI. Compared with a year earlier, the count in August 2026 fell by 3%. In January 2021 it reached 2,720, the most in the series and 2.3 times the 2019 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). Nobody publishes EI beneficiaries for Electoral Area B, Strathcona alone, so this card uses the figure for the Strathcona census division.
How walkable Electoral Area B, Strathcona is: B+
Better than 67% of Canadian towns on two measures together.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
Jobs near Electoral Area B, Strathcona: the places around it
Distances here run 17–23 km: that is how far the nearest places with figures are from Electoral Area B, Strathcona.
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electoral Area B, Strathcona | 77% | 10% | $49K | 17.8 min | C+ | B+ |
| Electoral Area C, Strathcona 17.3 km | 71% | 8.6% | $60K | 28.3 min | D | B |
| Campbell River 21 km | 73% | 8.7% | $78K | 20.9 min | B− | A− |
| Electoral Area D (Oyster Bay - Buttle Lake), Strathcona 22.2 km | 72% | 10% | $88K | 28.9 min | C | C+ |
| Electoral Area A, qathet 23.1 km | 62% | 20% | $62K | 24.6 min | D | B |
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 Electoral Area B, Strathcona, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- Household income. What the median household took in during 2020 before tax, as the census recorded it; an estimate built from income groups when the place is a neighbourhood.
- Trip times. The census asks how long the trip to work usually takes, in bands; our average uses each band’s middle, so it runs a little above Statistics Canada’s timed average.
- 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. How many people in the census division drew Employment Insurance each month; it moves with layoffs and hiring, yet people who don’t qualify are absent from it.
- The Labour Force Survey. Statistics Canada’s monthly survey, published for metro areas and economic regions rather than towns: it gives a current rate beside the census’s 2021 one.
- 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 census-week jobless rate for residents 15 and over. Its base is the labour force, those employed plus those actively looking.
- Which towns we compare. Medians over towns and neighbourhoods of at least 2,500 residents. Whole cities would swamp them and reserves sit outside the rankings, so neither is in.
Questions about work in Electoral Area B, Strathcona
How many jobs are there in Electoral Area B, Strathcona?
About 210 people had their usual place of work in Electoral Area B, Strathcona at the 2021 census, 1.1 for each working resident with a fixed workplace. In June 2026, 37 businesses with employees were on Statistics Canada’s count.
What is the unemployment rate in Electoral Area B, Strathcona?
At the 2021 census 10% of the labour force had no job and was looking (9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns). The latest monthly survey, for the Vancouver Island and Coast economic region, gives 5.2% in October 2026.
What is the average household income in Electoral Area B, Strathcona?
Before tax, half the households in Electoral Area B, Strathcona had more than $49,000 in 2020; the middle of Canadian towns is $85,900.
How do people in Electoral Area B, Strathcona get to work?
81% of commuters go by car, 5.5% walk and 5.5% cycle. On census day 18% of everyone in work stayed home to work.
How long is the commute from Electoral Area B, Strathcona?
On average 17.8 minutes; 60% take under 15 minutes and 4.1% take an hour or longer.
Where do people in Electoral Area B, Strathcona work?
84% work in Electoral Area B, Strathcona itself; of those who leave, the most go to Electoral Area C, Nanaimo (10).
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).