Photo: Laslovarga · CC BY-SA 3.0Hamilton Public Library - Waterdown Branch and Waterdown Branch Library are Waterdown’s two public libraries
Hamilton Public Library serves the whole of Hamilton, so the library figures on this page are the city’s: 592,000 people, Waterdown among them. 4.1 items per person served went out on loan in 2024. Ontario counts visits over one typical week and multiplies by 52, so the yearly figure is an estimate.
C+Civic life#337 of 866 in OntarioBehind Waterdown’s civic life grade
With a C+, Waterdown ranks #337 of 866 Ontario towns on civic life. A civic life grade combines library visits per resident, registered charities per 1,000 residents and the province’s volunteering rate, and all three exist for Waterdown.
Informal groups and mutual aid go uncounted.
Sources: provincial statistics, the CRA, Statistics Canada.
Hamilton mailing addresses hold 891 registered charities
There is no count for Waterdown on its own: the charities are those of all of Hamilton. That is 1.4 per 1,000 residents, against 1.4 in the typical Ontario town and 1.4 across Canada. The CRA files each charity under its mailing address, so a service town collects its region’s charities and a suburb or rural municipality few.
32.1%
32.1% of people in Ontario did formal volunteering in 2023, a province-wide estimate between 31.0% and 33.2%; across the ten provinces the rate runs from 25.2% to 40.3%.
Statistics Canada, table 45-10-0039.
Ahead of most of Ontario’s town libraries on all 3 measures
Measured per person served against the 195 town libraries of Ontario’s 2024 statistics.
Town libraries only; regional systems left out.
About 52,610 visits in a typical week
The year 2024 at Hamilton Public Library, in the library’s own counts.
2 public libraries in Waterdown
Closest first, each distance a straight line from the centre of Waterdown.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Visits count everyone. A busy library may owe some of its visits to people who live outside Waterdown; the figure can’t tell them apart.
Questions about the library and civic life in Waterdown
Does Waterdown have a public library?
Yes, 2: Hamilton Public Library - Waterdown Branch and Waterdown Branch Library.
How busy is Hamilton Public Library?
The 2024 totals: 2,735,720 in-person visits, 2,435,516 loans.
Library statistics: Ontario Public Library Statistics, 2024. Library locations: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) and Statistics Canada, Open Database of Cultural and Art Facilities (2020). Charities: Canada Revenue Agency, List of charities (2024), charitable organizations only.
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).