Photo: Gogerr · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Port Elgin top those of 89% of Canadian towns
With 73% of its 15-to-64s in work in 2021, Port Elgin matches the middle of Canadian towns. Port Elgin is the usual workplace of 3,315 people, and 4,645 of its own residents commute to a job. 8% of the labour force in Port Elgin was out of work at the 2021 census, next to 9.9% for the middle of Canadian towns.
What Port Elgin’s work numbers say
Higher incomes than most towns
Household income at the median was $103,300 in 2020, before tax; Canadian towns have $85,900 at the middle. Household income ↓
Shorter trips than most towns
The average trip to work is 22.5 minutes (26 in the middle of Canadian towns), and 2.3% last an hour or longer. The trip to work ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census, its commuting tables, Employment Insurance and the Labour Force Survey.
On jobs and income, Port Elgin grades A−
Better than 78% of Canadian towns on three measures together, #98 of 866 in Ontario.
Its strongest measure is household income; its weakest, the share of 15-to-64s in work.
Graded against Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more; less unemployment and a shorter commute count in its favour.
How the grade works
Census 2021 measures, weighed equally against every Canadian town and neighbourhood of 2,500 people or more: the share of residents aged 15 to 64 in work, median household income (2020), the unemployment rate and the average commute. Each becomes a percentile; their average sets the letter.
Median household income in Port Elgin: $103,300 in 2020
Port Elgin’s median is 13% above the middle of Ontario’s towns ($91,600). No other place of 2,500 or more in the Bruce census division has a higher median. The year is 2020: emergency benefits like CERB count in these incomes, and they raised the bottom of the range.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: median total income of households in 2020, before tax (a neighbourhood’s estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups).
Port Elgin has a quicker trip to work than the middle of Canadian towns: 22.5 minutes
An hour or more: 2.3% of commuters, under the 7.9% in the middle of Ontario’s towns. Statistics Canada’s own average, timed exactly rather than by band, is 20.5 minutes. The middle of Ontario’s towns averages 28.6 minutes. A quarter-hour or less for 41% of commuters, against 31% in the middle of Ontario’s towns.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: commuting duration in five bands; our average uses each band’s middle (75 minutes for an hour or more), so it runs about two minutes above Statistics Canada’s own.
Each working day, more people leave Port Elgin for work than come in
Outbound commuters outnumber inbound ones about 2 to 1. Of those who commute, 49% stay within the municipality; the middle of Canadian towns is 70%.
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
51% of Port Elgin’s residents in work leave it to work; Kincardine takes the most
- Chesley335
- Kincardine170
- Wiarton150
- Georgian Bluffs55
- Owen Sound55
- Saugeen 2940
- Walkerton30
- Durham25
- Hanover25
- Toronto15
- Kincardine1,755
- Owen Sound215
- Chesley65
- Walkerton50
- Georgian Bluffs40
- Mildmay35
- Wiarton35
- Hanover25
- Toronto20
- Chatsworth20
Inbound, the leader is Chesley (335).
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
Who in Port Elgin has a job
Of the 7 other places of 2,500 people or more in the Bruce census division, 2 have a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
For the wider area, the Labour Force Survey had 54% in work in October 2026. The participation rate, everyone 15 and over working or looking for work, was 56%. Counting retirees, 52% of everyone aged 15 and over was working. May 2021, when the census was taken, was a pandemic spring; unemployment has come down since, as the Labour Force Survey records.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: people in work of any age over residents aged 15 to 64, and the census unemployment rate (15 and over); the 25-to-54 rate is Statistics Canada’s own (98-10-0485). The Labour Force Survey and business counts are context, not grade inputs.
9% of commuters from Port Elgin go without a car
Transit takes 0.3% of commuters, against 3.5% in the middle of Canadian towns. On foot: 6.7% of commuters, well above the 3.2% in the middle of Ontario’s towns. Home was the workplace for 24%, where the middle of Canadian towns has 21%.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
21% more people are on EI in the Bruce census division than in 2019
At its peak, in February 2021, 3,510 people were on EI, 2.4 times the 2019 average. Per 100 residents aged 15 to 64, about 4.1 receive EI. Compared with a year earlier, the count in August 2026 rose by 3%.
Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance beneficiaries by census division (14-10-0323): all income benefits, not seasonally adjusted. Area behind the EI beneficiaries figures: the Bruce census division. EI counts are context, not part of any grade.
People receiving Employment Insurance each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
Port Elgin grades A− for walkability
Better than 82% of Canadian towns on two measures together, #472 of 866 in Ontario.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
For jobs and income, Port Elgin is 86th of 510 Canadian towns of 12,700 to 24,500
| # | Place | People | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yellowknife Northwest Territories | 22,858 | 80% | 5.8% | $148K | A+ |
| 2 | North Saanich British Columbia | 12,986 | 85% | 5.9% | $121K | A+ |
| 3 | Sillery Quebec | 13,950 | 81% | 6.2% | $120K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 6 | Glebe-Dows Lake Ontario | 13,436 | 80% | 9.4% | $113K | A+ |
| 7 | Perth East Ontario | 13,423 | 86% | 3.9% | $96K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 25 | Wilmot Ontario | 22,890 | 81% | 6.8% | $115K | A |
| … | ||||||
| 84 | Yonge-St.Clair Ontario | 13,177 | 85% | 8.6% | $96K | A− |
| 85 | Oakridge Ontario | 16,247 | 72% | 11% | $116K | A− |
| 86 | Saugeen Shores Ontario | 18,167 | 73% | 8% | $103K | A− |
| 87 | Glen Cairn Ontario | 14,020 | 75% | 10% | $113K | A− |
| 88 | Lloydminster (Part) Saskatchewan | 13,137 | 72% | 13% | $87K | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 510 | Oakridge Ontario | 13,913 | 51% | 21% | $60K | D− |
Ordered by Jobs & income Grade: the top three, the places either side of Port Elgin, and others among Ontario’s towns.
How the places next to Port Elgin compare on work
Port Elgin has few close neighbours with figures, so the list reaches 21–30 km out.
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Port Elgin | 73% | 8% | $103K | 22.5 min | A− | A− |
| Chesley 21 km | 82% | 7.1% | $80K | 27.1 min | B | B− |
| Wiarton 26.9 km | 73% | 9.3% | $72K | 28.3 min | C− | B |
| Kincardine 29.7 km | 75% | 8.3% | $102K | 19.7 min | A | B |
The people of each place: the share in work, unemployment, household income and the average commute, with both grades once they come.
What this data can and can’t tell you
What each figure measures for Port Elgin, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- Employment Insurance. Beneficiaries of Employment Insurance, month by month, for the census division rather than the town. Many jobless people don’t qualify, so it isn’t an unemployment rate.
- The Labour Force Survey. Sampled each month and released for regions rather than towns, so its rate describes the area around the town.
- In work. Why 15 to 64? Otherwise retirees would pull the rate down in older towns. The census can’t say how old a neighbourhood’s workers are, so the count of people in work takes every age.
- Unemployment. Of everyone 15 or older who was working or job-hunting in the census week, the part still looking. Someone not seeking work isn’t in it at all.
- Household income. Before-tax total income of the middle household for 2020, from the census. Neighbourhood medians are worked out from bracket counts, since Statistics Canada publishes none of their own.
- Trip times. Built from banded answers: each commuter’s usual one-way trip counts as the midpoint of the band they chose, and the result tends to sit slightly higher than Statistics Canada’s average.
- Where people commute. Counts of workers with a fixed workplace, by where they live and where they work, both taken as whole municipalities; the jobs figure takes everyone who works here, wherever home is.
- Which towns we compare. Any town of 2,500 or more counts, and so does any city neighbourhood that size; the city as a whole and First Nations reserves don’t. The middle is the median.
- The municipality’s figures. Statistics Canada counts Port Elgin as part of Saugeen Shores, so every census figure on this page is the whole municipality’s.
Questions about work in Port Elgin
What is the unemployment rate in Port Elgin?
The 2021 census found 8% unemployed, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns; the Labour Force Survey’s latest, for the Stratford-Bruce Peninsula economic region, is 3.8% (October 2026).
What is the average household income in Port Elgin?
The median household in Port Elgin had $103,300 before tax in 2020, against $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns.
How do people in Port Elgin get to work?
By car: 89% of commuters, 0.3% take public transit, 6.7% walk and 2% cycle; on census day 24% of those in work worked from home.
How long is the commute from Port Elgin?
22.5 minutes is the average trip, with 41% of commuters there in under 15 minutes and 2.3% taking an hour or more.
Where do people in Port Elgin work?
49% work in Port Elgin itself. Of those who leave, the most go to Kincardine (1,755), then Owen Sound (215).
How many jobs are there in Port Elgin?
The 2021 census counted about 3,315 people working in Port Elgin: 0.7 jobs for every resident who commutes to a fixed workplace. Statistics Canada counted 539 businesses with employees in June 2026.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population (Census Profile) · Statistics Canada, tables 98-10-0458 and 98-10-0459 (commuting) · Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0323 (EI beneficiaries) · Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (14-10-0459, 14-10-0462) · Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Counts (33-10-1176) · grades: TownRatings. 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).