Photo: Andre Carrotflower · CC BY-SA 4.0Older than 92% of Canadian towns: half of Parry Sound is over 53.2
Compared with 16% across Canada’s towns, 12% of residents are under 15 here. Across Parry Sound, 10% of residents have an Indigenous identity. At 11%, the share of one-parent families is higher than in just over four fifths of Canadian towns. Some 7,584 people live here, by the estimate for July 2025.
What stands out about the people of Parry Sound
Older than most towns
Line Parry Sound’s residents up by age and the one in the middle is 53.2; the typical median across Canadian towns is 42. 32% are 65 or over, against 19% across Canada’s towns. Ages ↓
Many people living alone
One-person households make up 40%, more than in 89% of Canadian towns, and 32% of residents are 65 or over. Households ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census.
From 2016 to 2021, Parry Sound outgrew 70% of Canadian towns: +7%
Unless a figure says otherwise, it is from the 2021 Census. Two census counts, five years apart, and Statistics Canada’s newest estimate.
Change, 2016 to 2021
Medians for comparison: +4% across Canada’s towns; +6% across Ontario’s towns. By July 2025, the estimate had risen a further 10%.
Residents aged 65 and over: 32%, a higher share than 95% of Canadian towns
Share of residents in each five-year band; the tick is the typical town.
8.7% of residents are aged 15 to 24, against 11% across Canada’s towns. The wider picture: 19% of residents are 65 or over across Canada’s towns. The largest age band is 60–64: nearly one in ten residents.
Median age of Canadian towns of 2,500+
■ Parry Sound, 53.2. The typical town is 42.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
53% women, 47% men
About 88 men for every 100 women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
One-person households make up 40% in Parry Sound, more than in 89% of Canadian towns
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.
The average household has 2 people, against 2.4 across Canada’s towns. Set beside that, 27% of households are one person living alone across Canada’s towns.
37% of residents 15 and over are married, fewer than in 74% of Canadian towns
Marital status of residents 15 and over, with common-law couples counted apart.
Marital status · residents 15 and over
11% of residents 15 and over live common-law across Canada’s towns, against 12% in Parry Sound. Singles who have never married make up 26% of adults, beside a typical 27%.
More renter households than 75% of Canadian towns: 40%
Houses and apartments, owners and renters, older and newer homes. 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
Across Canada’s towns, 64% of households live in a single-detached house; in Parry Sound, 54%. To put it in context, 25% of households rent their home across Canada’s towns. Census figures put households in buildings of five or more storeys at 5.9% here.
The median household brings in $62,000 a year
Census incomes cover 2020, when emergency benefits like CERB lifted many households’ totals. What households took in before tax, at the middle and across income groups.
Households by income · share of households
The median across Canada’s towns is $86,000; Parry Sound’s, at $62,000, is 28% lower. The middle household across Ontario’s towns has $91,600 before tax. In 2020, 23% of income recipients drew a COVID-19 emergency or recovery benefit; the typical town had 28%.
Residents who moved in within the year: 13%, a higher share than 70% of Canadian towns
Immigrants by continent of birth and when they arrived, citizenship, and who moved in recently.
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
The largest groups of immigrants were born in Europe (56%) and in Asia (31%). To put it in context, 11% of residents lived at another address a year earlier across Canada’s towns. Few places have so few immigrants: 7.5% here, fewer than in 72% of Canadian towns. Add to that, nearly a quarter of immigrants arrived from 2011 to 2021 (typical: 27%), and non-permanent residents make up a further 1% of residents.
Parry Sound sits above 84% of Canadian towns for residents with no religion (48%)
Identity and faith, in the census’s categories.
Visible minority and Indigenous identity · all residents
Religion · all residents
15% of residents belong to a visible minority across Canada’s towns, against 5.3% in Parry Sound. Residents with no religion: 35% across Canada’s towns, for comparison.
English is the mother tongue of 91%, and 6.5% speak French as well
English, French and the other languages people grew up with or speak at home.
Can hold a conversation in · share of all residents
Mother tongue · share of all residents
Residents whose mother tongue is French: 1.6% of the total. 7.5% of residents speak English and French across Canada’s towns, against 6.5% in Parry Sound.
In Parry Sound, 19% of residents 25 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, fewer than in 70% of Canadian towns
Education of residents 25 to 64, by highest credential.
Highest qualification · residents 25 to 64
No diploma or degree: 15% here, 9.5% in the typical town. For comparison, 27% of residents 25 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher across Canada’s towns.
Employment: 49% of residents 15 and over had a job
The census counted work in May 2021, mid-pandemic, so read these rates as a pandemic snapshot. The census’s work rates at a glance. Jobs, industries and the commute are on Work & commute.
With 32% of residents 65 or over, the employment rate of 49% sits under the typical 58% across Canada’s towns.
The 5th oldest of 41 towns of 7,411 to 7,760 people
Similar-sized towns by median age; each dot is a town.
They run from Blairmore Suburban Centre, at 31.8, to Louiseville, at 57.6. Port Credit (48.6), Saint-Calixte (48.8), Digby (53.6) and Campbellton (53.6): the towns nearest Parry Sound in median age.
Parry Sound and its 5 nearest towns: 4 of them are older
Neighbouring places and their median ages; each name opens its page.
| Town | People | Away | Median age | 65+ | Immigrants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parry Sound | 7,584 | — | 53.2 | 32% | 7.5% |
| The Archipelago | 1,057 | 5.8 km | 60.4 | 37% | 9.5% |
| McDougall | 3,002 | 12.0 km | 52 | 28% | 6.9% |
| McKellar | 1,534 | 16.4 km | 60.4 | 37% | 12% |
| Carling | 1,609 | 17.4 km | 58 | 32% | 8.8% |
| Seguin | 5,761 | 18.1 km | 54.8 | 29% | 8.4% |
Health, work, housing and schools
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The census’s own words. In the census, “visible minority” is the Employment Equity Act’s term for people who are non-white in colour or race and not Indigenous. Like immigrant status, Indigenous identity and religion, which residents reported themselves, it is compared with other towns, never turned into a label.
- Against Ontario’s towns and Canada’s towns. Each comparison is its own median: over Ontario’s towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500 or more, and over all Canadian towns of that size (whole cities and First Nations reserves left out). Percentiles are within Canada only.
- 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 Parry Sound’s residents
What is the average age in Parry Sound?
The median age is 53.2, older than 92% of Canadian towns. 12% are under 15 and 32% 65 or older.
Is Parry Sound bilingual?
Across Canada’s towns a typical 7.5% are bilingual; here 6.5% are. Another 0.1% speak only French and 93% only English, and French is the first language of 1.6%.
How diverse is Parry Sound?
Immigrants: 7.5% (Canada’s towns: 17%). Visible minority: 5.3%. Indigenous identity: 10%.
What religion are people in Parry Sound?
48% said they have no religion and 49% that they are Christian; 3.5% named another faith.
Is Parry Sound good for families?
12% of residents are under 15 (Canada’s towns: 16%); couple families are 41% of households and one-parent families 11%. Schools near Parry Sound are on its Schools page.
What is the median income in Parry Sound?
Half of Parry Sound’s households had more than $62,000 in 2020, before tax; across Canada’s towns the median was $86,000.
What is the population of Parry Sound?
About 7,584, by Statistics Canada’s estimate for July 2025. The 2021 Census found 6,879 people in Parry Sound, 7% 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).