Photo: Patrick Tomasso impatrickt · CC0Households in Bancroft earn less than those in 93% of Canadian towns
At the 2021 census, 63% of Bancroft’s 15-to-64s were in work; the middle of Canadian towns is 73%. Jobs located in Bancroft: 1,935, for 900 residents with a usual workplace. Unemployment in Bancroft stood at 12% on census day 2021, and the middle of Canadian towns sits at 9.9%.
Jobs and income in Bancroft: what the figures say
Fewer people in work than most towns
Among residents aged 15 to 64, 63% were in work at the 2021 census, against 73% in the middle of Canadian towns; take everyone 15 and over and it falls to 42%. In work ↓
Lower incomes than most towns
The middle of Canadian towns is $85,900, and the median household here had $56,900 before tax in 2020. Household income ↓
A local job centre
With 1,935 jobs based in Bancroft and 900 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 19.6 minutes (26 in the middle of Canadian towns), and 7.6% 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.
Bancroft grades C− for jobs and income
Better than 16% of Canadian towns on three measures together, #680 of 866 in Ontario.
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.
Work and the working-age population of Bancroft
Of the 8 other places of 2,500 people or more in the Hastings census division, one has a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
Many residents are past working age, so among everyone 15 and over the share in work drops to 42%. For the wider area, the Labour Force Survey had 55% in work in October 2026. Participation, the share of residents 15 and over working or looking for work, came to 47%. 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.
What households earned in Bancroft: $56,900 in 2020
Every other place of 2,500 or more in the Hastings census division has a higher median. Set beside Ontario’s towns, where the median is $91,600, Bancroft sits 38% below. Incomes here are 2020’s and include the pandemic payments, CERB among them, that propped up the lower end.
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, Bancroft’s workforce grows by 95%
Bancroft takes in some 5 workers for every resident it sends out.
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
Shorter than the middle of Canadian towns: commutes from Bancroft average 19.6 minutes
A quarter-hour or less for 59% of commuters, against 31% in the middle of Ontario’s towns. Long trips, an hour or more, are about as common as in the middle of Ontario’s towns: 7.6%. Timed exactly, the average is 19.7 minutes (Statistics Canada). The middle of Ontario’s towns averages 28.6 minutes.
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.
1,280 people come into Bancroft to work, most from Hastings Highlands and Faraday
- Hastings Highlands450
- Faraday215
- Highlands East160
- Carlow/Mayo130
- Wollaston40
- North Kawartha40
- Madoc25
- Tudor and Cashel25
- Limerick20
- Brudenell, Lyndoch and Raglan20
- Faraday90
- Hastings Highlands30
- Wollaston15
- Carlow/Mayo15
- Peterborough15
- Belleville10
- Tudor and Cashel10
- Toronto10
- Highlands East10
66% of the people who work in Bancroft live outside it, 450 of them in Hastings Highlands, 13 km away. Of residents who leave for work, most head to Faraday (90).
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
7.5% of commuters in Bancroft walk, cycle or take transit
Home was the workplace for 14%, under the 21% in the middle of Canadian towns. Few ride transit: 0.8%, where the middle of Canadian towns has 3.5%. More people walk to work here than in the middle of Ontario’s towns: 5.9% against 3.2%. Nearly everyone drives: 90% of commuters go by car, truck or van.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
26% more people are on EI in the Hastings census division than in 2019
That is about 4.2 people on EI for every 100 aged 15 to 64 in the division. Compared with a year earlier, the count in August 2026 rose by 1%. At its peak, in April 2021, 7,740 people were on EI, 2.9 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). Bancroft doesn’t get its own EI beneficiaries figures; the ones here come from the Hastings census division.
Bancroft grades B for walkability
Better than 57% of Canadian towns on two measures together, #639 of 866 in Ontario.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
Out of 746 Canadian towns of 3,000 to 5,800, Bancroft comes 631st on jobs and income
| # | Place | People | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crescentwood Manitoba | 3,060 | 87% | 5% | $123K | A+ |
| 2 | Cornwallis Manitoba | 4,705 | 85% | 2.1% | $99K | A+ |
| 3 | New Maryland New Brunswick | 4,455 | 81% | 6.5% | $118K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 7 | Red Lake Ontario | 4,285 | 77% | 5.1% | $111K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 9 | Perth South Ontario | 4,055 | 87% | 7.3% | $102K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 11 | Island Park-Wellington Village Ontario | 5,486 | 81% | 7% | $161K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 629 | Dalhousie New Brunswick | 3,255 | 55% | 12% | $54K | C− |
| 630 | Bannerman Alberta | 5,187 | 59% | 15% | $80K | C− |
| 631 | Bancroft Ontario | 4,331 | 63% | 12% | $57K | C− |
| 632 | Cartier Manitoba | 3,739 | 52% | 7.5% | $101K | C− |
| 633 | Red Hill Ontario | 4,540 | 65% | 13% | $77K | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 746 | Saint-Alexis-des-Monts Quebec | 3,190 | 61% | 11% | $50K | D− |
Ordered by Jobs & income Grade: the top three, the places either side of Bancroft, and others among Ontario’s towns.
Around Bancroft: jobs, pay and the commute
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bancroft | 63% | 12% | $57K | 19.6 min | C− | B |
| Faraday 11.1 km | 59% | 18% | $65K | 22.8 min | D | C− |
| Hastings Highlands 13.4 km | 64% | 15% | $69K | 28.7 min | D | C− |
| Carlow/Mayo 17.7 km | 73% | 9.1% | $69K | 35 min | D | D− |
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 Bancroft, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- In work. People in work of any age over residents aged 15 to 64 (2021 Census). The census doesn’t cross work with age below the municipality, so this is the one rate every town and neighbourhood has; retirees don’t weigh on it.
- Unemployment. Of everyone 15 or older who was working or job-hunting in the census week, the part still looking. Someone not seeking work isn’t in it at all.
- 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. 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. Beneficiaries of Employment Insurance, month by month, for the census division rather than the town. Many jobless people don’t qualify, so it isn’t 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.
- 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 Bancroft
How many jobs are there in Bancroft?
The 2021 census found about 1,935 people with their usual workplace in Bancroft, or 2.2 for each resident who travels to a fixed job. Statistics Canada counted 231 businesses with employees in June 2026.
What is the unemployment rate in Bancroft?
The 2021 census found 12% unemployed, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns; the Labour Force Survey’s latest, for the Kingston-Pembroke economic region, is 6.8% (October 2026).
What is the average household income in Bancroft?
Bancroft’s middle household had $56,900 in 2020, before tax; Canadian towns have $85,900 at their middle.
How do people in Bancroft get to work?
90% of commuters drive, 0.8% take public transit, 5.9% walk and 0.8% cycle; 14% of everyone in work worked at home on census day.
How long is the commute from Bancroft?
The average commute is 19.6 minutes; 59% of trips take under 15 minutes and 7.6% an hour or more.
Where do people in Bancroft work?
Most stay: 73% work in Bancroft. The rest go first to Faraday (90) and Hastings Highlands (30).
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).