Highland WestKitchener

Highland West earns an A for health

Chronic conditions run at 16% of adults, age-standardised, below both Ontario’s towns (17%) and Canadian towns (17%). Smoking is rarer than in the province: nearly one in ten adults, against 11% for Ontario. In the health survey, 53% of adults in the region rate their health very good or excellent, more than Ontario’s 51%. The region’s 2022/2024 life expectancy is 82.8, with women at 84.9 and men at 80.7.

Measured against local pay, Highland West costs more to live in than 85% of Canadian towns

Owners put the median home at $695,000, about level with Ontario’s towns ($695,000) and above Canadian towns ($406,000). 17% of households spent 30% or more of their income on shelter, below Ontario’s towns (22%) and Canadian towns (18%) alike.

Flood mapping exists for Highland West: 1 on record, latest by Grand River Conservation Authority

Seismic risk in Highland West sits near the middle: $0.022 of expected damage per $1,000 of buildings a year, the typical town $0.030. Radon is lower than usual: 4% of tested homes in the survey area topped the guideline, against 6.6% for the typical town. Behind earthquake risk sits data gathered across the city of Kitchener, with Highland West one part of it.

7 above the middle in Ontario, 12 below: Highland West’s 28 tested schools

The largest is Resurrection Catholic Secondary School, with 1,920 students. Counting each board with a school within 3 km gives 2, lower than both Ontario’s towns (4) and Canadian towns (3). None of them teaches in French, though 10% of schools in Ontario do. The 3 km around Highland West counts 29 elementary schools and 3 secondary schools, 17,680 students between them.

Household incomes in Highland West are higher than in 92% of Canadian towns

On average, the journey to work lasts 25 min.

Highland West earns a C+ for safety

Measured across the Waterloo Region (Kitchener) service area: Crime Severity Index, Violent Crime Severity Index, violent crime and property crime per 1,000

Violent crime in the area its police cover: 14.2 per 1,000 people a year. The index for the force that serves it came to 72, higher than both Ontario’s towns (56) and Canadian towns (67).

January lows in Highland West: −10.3°C, against −9.1°C in Ontario’s towns and −13.5°C in Canadian towns

A normal winter brings 115 cm of snow, lower than both Ontario’s towns (146 cm) and Canadian towns (141 cm). Between the last spring frost, 8 May, and the first in autumn, 5 October, lie 149 days. January is the snowiest month, with 32 cm on average. The most precipitation falls in July: 96 mm in a normal year.

More of Highland West belongs to a visible minority than Ontario’s towns or Canadian towns: 42%

0.7% of residents have an Indigenous identity, below Ontario’s towns (1.6%) and Canadian towns (2.8%) alike.

Highland West in November: highs near 7°C, lows near −2°C

Normal highs peak at 27°C in July; nights bottom out at −10°C in January. Then December: 1°C by day, −6°C at night. Precipitation in November averages 75 mm. A typical November adds 9 cm of snow.

Council seats in Kitchener are spread thin, 29,450 residents each, more than in 98% of Ontario municipalities

For the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Highland West votes in Kitchener—Conestoga; open data doesn’t yet say who its MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament, at Queen’s Park in Toronto) is.

Highland West has no public library of its own; the nearest is Kitchener Public Library - Forest Heights, 2 km away

Kitchener public library serves the whole of Kitchener, so the library figures on this page are the city’s: 292,240 people, Highland West among them.

From Highland West, Trillium Woods Provincial Park is the nearest provincial park (44 km)

19 protected areas lie within 10 km. National parks are all over 100 km off. Protected areas cover 1.3% of the land within 10 km; for the typical Canadian town it is 2.3%. 4.6 km out lies the largest, Huron Natural Area, at 96 ha.