Photo: WB Robinson Photographer · CC BY-SA 4.0Half of Port Colborne is over 50.4, older than 86% of Canadian towns
16% of residents are under 15 across Canada’s towns, against 13% in Port Colborne. Statistics Canada puts the town’s population at 21,921 for July 2025. Across Port Colborne, 5.4% of residents have an Indigenous identity. More one-person households than in 68% of Canadian towns: 32%.
What stands out about the people of Port Colborne
Older than most towns
Line Port Colborne’s residents up by age and the one in the middle is 50.4; the typical median across Canadian towns is 42. 27% are 65 or over, against 19% across Canada’s towns. Ages ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census.
Faster growth than 79% of Canadian towns: Port Colborne changed by +9% since 2016
Unless a figure says otherwise, it is from the 2021 Census. How the population moved between the last two censuses, and since.
Change, 2016 to 2021
Across Ontario’s towns the median is +6%, and across Canada’s towns +4%.
27% of residents are 65 or over, a share 86% of Canadian towns don’t reach
Every five-year age group as a share of residents; ticks mark the typical town.
Just over one in ten residents are aged 15 to 24 across Canada’s towns, against 9.5% in Port Colborne. The usual figure: 19% of residents are 65 or over across Canada’s towns.
Median age of Canadian towns of 2,500+
■ Port Colborne, 50.4. The typical town is 42.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
About 94 men for every 100 women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
Port Colborne households average 2.2 people, smaller than in 74% of Canadian towns
Private households by type and size.
Against Ontario’s towns and Canada’s towns
People per household
Canada’s towns.
Compared with 8.2% across Canada’s towns, one in ten households are one-parent families here.
A lower share of married residents 15 and over than 54% of Canadian towns, at 45%
How adults live as couples, or don’t, with common-law unions shown on their own.
Marital status · residents 15 and over
Nearly a quarter of adults are single and have never married; the typical town has 27%. For comparison, 46% of residents 15 and over are married across Canada’s towns. Common-law partners: 11% of the total.
A larger share of households in buildings of five or more storeys than 65% of Canadian towns: 2.2%
The kinds of homes people live in, who owns and who rents, and how old the homes are. 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
Against a figure of 64% across Canada’s towns, the share of households in single-detached houses in Port Colborne comes in at 71%. Older homes outnumber new: 55% predate 1961, 7.8% date from 2001 or later.
$70,000 a year: where the middle household sits
The census asked about income in 2020: a pandemic year, with CERB and other emergency benefits counted in. Household income before tax: the median, and households by income group.
Households by income · share of households
Household incomes run lower in Port Colborne: half had less than $70,000, 19% under the median across Canada’s towns ($86,000). Across Ontario’s towns, half of households had more than $91,600 before tax. 26% of income recipients received COVID-19 emergency or recovery benefits (typical: 28%).
A lower share of residents who moved in within the year than 69% of Canadian towns, at 9.2%
Birthplaces and arrival years of immigrants, citizenship and recent moves.
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
Set against 5.8% across Canada’s towns, 2% of residents are not Canadian citizens in Port Colborne. The usual figure: just over one in ten residents lived at another address a year earlier across Canada’s towns. For Port Colborne, the census puts immigrants at 8.8%.
A larger share of residents with no religion than 55% of Canadian towns: 37%
Visible minority, Indigenous identity and religion, as residents answered the census.
Visible minority and Indigenous identity · all residents
Religion · all residents
2.8% of residents belong to a visible minority (Canada’s towns: 15%). Against that, 35% of residents said they have no religion across Canada’s towns.
Port Colborne sits above 69% of Canadian towns for residents whose mother tongue is French (3.5%)
Who can speak English and French, mother tongue, and the language spoken most at home.
Can hold a conversation in · share of all residents
Mother tongue · share of all residents
Here, 8% of residents speak English and French. The benchmark for residents whose mother tongue is French across Canada’s towns: 1.5%.
Below 86% of Canadian towns: 14% of residents 25 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher
From no certificate to a master’s: residents 25 to 64.
Highest qualification · residents 25 to 64
Some 9.7% have no certificate, diploma or degree, against a typical 9.5%. Set beside that, 27% of residents 25 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher across Canada’s towns.
An employment rate of 47%
Census day was in May 2021, mid-pandemic: some of these rates are lower than in a usual year. Four labour figures from the census. Jobs, industries and the commute are on Work & commute.
The employment rate of 47% is below the typical 58% across Canada’s towns; 27% of residents are 65 or over.
Oldest by rank: 1st of 41 towns of 21,450 to 22,408 people
Towns of about this size, placed by median age.
Electoral Area A, Metro Vancouver is the youngest of them at 31.4; Port Colborne, at 50.4, the oldest. Nearest to Port Colborne in age: Colchester County, Subdivision B (48.8) and Tillsonburg (49.2).
The towns around Port Colborne are all younger
The nearest places, coloured by median age; each links to its own page.
Health, work, housing and schools
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The census’s own words. The census takes “visible minority” from the Employment Equity Act: anyone other than Indigenous peoples who is non-white in colour or race. Indigenous identity, immigrant status and religion are what residents reported, compared here with other towns and never used as a label.
- 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. Missing from the census as published: unpaid care, cars and internet access, and the shift in each age band since 2016. Ethnic origins past visible minority and Indigenous identity aren’t charted here.
Questions about Port Colborne’s residents
What is the median income in Port Colborne?
$70,000 before tax, in 2020: the middle household’s income in Port Colborne (Canada’s towns: $86,000).
What is the population of Port Colborne?
Statistics Canada estimates 21,921 residents for July 2025; the 2021 Census counted 20,033 in Port Colborne, 9% more than 2016.
What is the average age in Port Colborne?
50.4 is the median age, older than 86% of Canadian towns. Under 15: 13%. 65 and over: 27%.
Is Port Colborne bilingual?
8% of residents can speak both English and French (typical across Canada’s towns: 7.5%); 0.1% speak French only and 92% English only. French is the mother tongue of 3.5%.
How diverse is Port Colborne?
Immigrants make up 8.8% of residents, against 17% across Canada’s towns. 2.8% are members of a visible minority, and 5.4% are First Nations, Métis or Inuit.
What religion are people in Port Colborne?
Christian: 63%. No religion: 37%. Another religion: 0.8%.
Is Port Colborne good for families?
Across Canada’s towns, a typical 16% of residents are under 15; here, 13%. 51% of households are couple families and 9.6% one-parent families. Schools near Port Colborne are on its Schools page.
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).