Photo: Boxcarphilly · CC BY 3.093% of households live in a single-detached house, a share 94% of Canadian towns don’t reach
Most recent wave: 3.3% of immigrants arrived in 2011–2021 (Canada’s towns: 27%). The latest estimate, for July 2025, is 12,148 residents; the 2021 Census found 4,090 households. Residents aged 65 and over: nearly a quarter of the total. With a median age of 46.8, Grey Highlands is older than just over three quarters of Canadian towns.
A +6% change since 2016: faster than 64% of Canadian towns
Unless a figure says otherwise, it is from the 2021 Census. The census counts of 2016 and 2021, the estimate after them, and the change set beside other towns.
Change, 2016 to 2021
Statistics Canada’s estimate for July 2025 is 17% higher again. Medians for comparison: +4% across Canada’s towns; +6% across Ontario’s towns.
In Grey Highlands, 18% of residents are under 15, more than in 67% of Canadian towns
Residents by five-year age band, each beside the typical town (the tick).
One in ten residents are aged 15 to 24 (Canada’s towns: 11%). More residents are 60–64 than any other five-year age: nearly one in ten residents, 1.3 times the share across Canada’s towns.
Median age of Canadian towns of 2,500+
■ Grey Highlands, 46.8. The typical town is 42.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
49% women, 51% men
About an even split.
Larger households than 58% of Canadian towns: 2.5 people on average
Households by family type and by the number of people in them.
Against Ontario’s towns and Canada’s towns
People per household
Canada’s towns.
In Grey Highlands, a quarter of households are one person living alone, beside 27% across Canada’s towns. Locally, 5.7% of households are one-parent families.
In Grey Highlands, 54% of residents 15 and over are married, more than in 74% of Canadian towns
Married, common-law, single: residents 15 and over.
Marital status · residents 15 and over
Just over a fifth of adults are single and have never married; the typical town has 27%. Common-law partners: just over a tenth of the total. As a reference point, 46% of residents 15 and over are married across Canada’s towns.
13% of households rent their home, below 81% of Canadian towns
Dwelling types, tenure and age of the housing. Prices, rents and shelter costs are on Cost of living.
Type of home
Owners and renters · share of households
When homes were built · share of homes
Households in buildings of five or more storeys are rarer here than in nearly three quarters of Canadian towns. A third of homes were built before 1961 and 19% in 2001 or later. The comparison figure for renter households is 25% across Canada’s towns.
Households here have a median income of $85,000 a year
Census incomes cover 2020, when emergency benefits like CERB lifted many households’ totals. Income per household, before tax, with the groups it falls into.
Households by income · share of households
Household incomes sit at the middle in Grey Highlands: half had more than $85,000, near the median across Canada’s towns ($86,000). The provincial yardstick is $91,600, the median across Ontario’s towns. Emergency and recovery benefits reached 24% of those with an income, beside a typical 28%.
7.3% of residents are immigrants
Where immigrants were born and when they came, and how recently residents moved in.
Immigrants, by continent of birth · share of all residents; the bar runs to 35%
When immigrants arrived · share of immigrants
Citizenship and moving · share of residents
In Grey Highlands, 1.2% of residents are not Canadian citizens, beside 5.8% across Canada’s towns. Most immigrants were born in Europe (70%) or in the Americas (18%). The town has fewer immigrants than 73% of Canadian towns, at 7.3%.
Grey Highlands ranks above 76% of Canadian towns on residents with no religion: 44%
Identity and faith, in the census’s categories.
Visible minority and Indigenous identity · all residents
Religion · all residents
1.5% of residents have an Indigenous identity, against 2.8% across Canada’s towns. By way of comparison, 35% of residents said they have no religion across Canada’s towns. Visible minority residents: 1.9% of the total.
English is the mother tongue of 85%, and 5.4% speak French as well
The official languages residents can speak, and the ones they learned first.
Can hold a conversation in · share of all residents
Mother tongue · share of all residents
At 0.8%, residents whose mother tongue is French sit close to the figure across Canada’s towns. 8.9% most often speak a language other than English or French at home, and 2% speak neither official language. On bilingual residents, Grey Highlands sits lower than 70% of Canadian towns: 5.4%.
Only 16% of residents 25 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher in Grey Highlands
Education of residents 25 to 64, by highest credential.
Highest qualification · residents 25 to 64
Across Canada’s towns, 27% of 25- to 64-year-olds hold a degree; in Grey Highlands, 16%, and 36% have a college or trades credential (typical: 29%). Those with no credential make up 14%, next to 9.5% in the typical town.
56% of adults were employed in May 2021
The census counted work in May 2021, mid-pandemic, so read these rates as a pandemic snapshot. Work, briefly: employment, unemployment, participation and working from home. Jobs, industries and the commute are on Work & commute.
56% of residents 15 and over have a job, in line with the typical 58% across Canada’s towns.
41 towns of 11,910 to 12,413 people: this is the 14th oldest
The Canadian towns closest in population, from youngest to oldest.
Between Blackfalds (31.8) and Elliot Lake (60.4) lies the rest of the group. St. Andrews (46.8), Saint-Raymond (46.8), Milliken (47.6) and Bromont (47.6): the towns nearest Grey Highlands in median age.
Of the 4 towns nearest Grey Highlands, 1 are older
Neighbouring places and their median ages; each name opens its page. Distances here run 18–29 km: that is how far the nearest places with figures are from Grey Highlands.
| Town | People | Away | Median age | 65+ | Immigrants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grey Highlands | 12,148 | — | 46.8 | 24% | 7.3% |
| Dundalk | 11,599 | 17.5 km | 36 | 15% | 12% |
| Melancthon | 3,581 | 24.8 km | 39.2 | 14% | 11% |
| Thornbury | 11,162 | 27.4 km | 58.8 | 34% | 13% |
| Chatsworth | 7,770 | 28.6 km | 46 | 22% | 7.1% |
Health, work, housing and schools
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The census’s own words. “Visible minority” is the census’s term from the Employment Equity Act: people, other than Indigenous peoples, who are non-white in colour or race. Indigenous identity, immigrant status and religion are as residents answered. The page compares them with other towns and never labels a town by them.
- Against Ontario’s towns and Canada’s towns. Two medians frame each figure: one for Ontario’s towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500 or more, one for all Canadian towns of that size, with whole cities and First Nations reserves left out. Percentiles rank the town within Canada.
- What these tables don’t give. For origins the charts stop at visible minority and Indigenous identity, and the Census Profile has nothing on unpaid care, cars or the internet, or on change by age since 2016.
Questions about Grey Highlands’s residents
What is the average age in Grey Highlands?
The median age is 46.8, older than 76% of Canadian towns. 18% are under 15 and 24% 65 or older.
Is Grey Highlands bilingual?
Both official languages are spoken by 5.4% of residents, against a typical 7.5% across Canada’s towns. 93% speak only English and 0% only French; 0.8% grew up with French.
How diverse is Grey Highlands?
Immigrants: 7.3% (Canada’s towns: 17%). Visible minority: 1.9%. Indigenous identity: 1.5%.
What religion are people in Grey Highlands?
44% said they have no religion and 55% that they are Christian; 1.4% named another faith.
Is Grey Highlands good for families?
18% of residents are under 15 (Canada’s towns: 16%); couple families are 60% of households and one-parent families 5.7%. Schools near Grey Highlands are on its Schools page.
What is the median income in Grey Highlands?
Half of Grey Highlands’s households had more than $85,000 in 2020, before tax; across Canada’s towns the median was $86,000.
What is the population of Grey Highlands?
About 12,148, by Statistics Canada’s estimate for July 2025. The 2021 Census found 10,424 people in Grey Highlands, 6% more than 2016.
Sources: Statistics Canada, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population · Statistics Canada, population estimates for 1 July 2025 (table 17-10-0155). 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).