Photo: Andre Carrotflower · CC BY-SA 4.0More Indigenous residents than 97% of Canadian towns: 21%
With households in single-detached houses at 95%, Sables-Spanish Rivers is ahead of 96% of Canadian towns on that count. At the same time, 3.6% of residents are immigrants, a lower share than in 87% of Canadian towns. A median age of 50.4 (older than 86% of Canadian towns) sets Sables-Spanish Rivers apart: 3,237 residents in 1,385 households at the 2021 Census. The share of residents without Canadian citizenship stands at 0.9%.
What stands out about the people of Sables-Spanish Rivers
First Nations, Métis and Inuit residents
An Indigenous identity is reported by 21% of residents, more than in 97% of Canadian towns, and 8.4% are Registered or Treaty Indians. Identity & religion ↓
Older than most towns
Sables-Spanish Rivers’s median age is 50.4; the typical median across Canadian towns is 42. 24% are 65 or over, against 19% across Canada’s towns. Ages ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census.
A change of +2% since 2016 leaves Sables-Spanish Rivers behind 68% of Canadian towns
Figures are from the 2021 Census unless dated otherwise. Two census counts, five years apart, and Statistics Canada’s newest estimate.
Change, 2016 to 2021
Statistics Canada’s estimate for July 2025 is 5% higher again. Across Canada’s towns, half of towns changed by more than +4%; across Ontario’s towns, by more than +6%.
A median age of 50.4: Sables-Spanish Rivers is older than 86% of Canadian towns
Share of residents in each five-year band; the tick is the typical town.
Here 24% of residents are 65 or over, where the figure across Canada’s towns is 19%. On children under 15, Sables-Spanish Rivers sits lower than 60% of Canadian towns: 15%.
Median age of Canadian towns of 2,500+
■ Sables-Spanish Rivers, 50.4. The typical town is 42.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
50% women, 50% men
About an even split.
Sables-Spanish Rivers households average 2.3 people, smaller than in 64% of Canadian towns
Private households by type and size.
Against Ontario’s towns and Canada’s towns
People per household
Canada’s towns.
In Sables-Spanish Rivers, just over a quarter of households are one person living alone. One-parent families: 8.3%, near enough the figure across Canada’s towns.
52% of residents 15 and over are married, a share 68% of Canadian towns don’t reach
Marital status of residents 15 and over, with common-law couples counted apart.
Marital status · residents 15 and over
Across Canada’s towns, the share of common-law partners is 11%; Sables-Spanish Rivers has 12%. As a yardstick, 46% of residents 15 and over are married across Canada’s towns.
Sables-Spanish Rivers ranks below 79% of Canadian towns on renter households: 14%
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
12% of homes need major repairs, against a typical 5.8%. Typically, 25% of households rent their home across Canada’s towns. Older homes outnumber new: 30% predate 1961, 13% date from 2001 or later. Households in buildings of five or more storeys are rarer here than in nearly three quarters of Canadian towns.
$70,500 a year: where the middle household sits
Census incomes are for 2020, the year before the census, when CERB and other pandemic benefits topped up many households. What households took in before tax, at the middle and across income groups.
Households by income · share of households
The middle household in Sables-Spanish Rivers had $70,500 before tax, 18% below the median across Canada’s towns ($86,000). Within Ontario’s towns, the household in the middle had $91,600. In 2020, 19% of income recipients drew a COVID-19 emergency or recovery benefit; the typical town had 28%.
Residents who moved in within the year make up 10% in Sables-Spanish Rivers, less than in 58% 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 (59%) and in the Americas (18%). On average, 11% of residents lived at another address a year earlier across Canada’s towns. Most recent wave: 13% of immigrants arrived in 2011–2021 (Canada’s towns: 27%).
35% of residents said they have no religion, more than in 51% of Canadian towns
Visible minority, Indigenous identity and religion, as residents answered the census.
Visible minority and Indigenous identity · all residents
Religion · all residents
The share of visible minority residents is 1.6%, against 15% across Canada’s towns.
Sables-Spanish Rivers ranks above 75% of Canadian towns on residents whose mother tongue is French: 9.1%
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
Against a figure of 7.5% across Canada’s towns, the share of bilingual residents in Sables-Spanish Rivers comes in at 14%. Mother tongue: English 83%, French 9.1%.
In Sables-Spanish Rivers, 8% of residents 25 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, fewer than in 98% of Canadian towns
From no certificate to a master’s: residents 25 to 64.
Highest qualification · residents 25 to 64
With no certificate, diploma or degree: 19%, beside a typical 9.5%. Set beside that, 27% of residents 25 to 64 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher across Canada’s towns.
45% of residents 15 and over were in work
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.
The employment rate of 45% is below the typical 58% across Canada’s towns; 24% of residents are 65 or over.
Ranked by age, 12th oldest of 41 towns this size
Similar-sized towns by median age; each dot is a town.
Between Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier (32.8) and Electoral Area F, Columbia-Shuswap (61.2) lies the rest of the group. Portneuf (49.6), Electoral Area B, North Okanagan (50.4), Channel-Port aux Basques (54) and Merrickville (54.4): the towns nearest Sables-Spanish Rivers in median age.
Sables-Spanish Rivers is older than every town around it
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. 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. A figure here is set beside two middles, the median across Ontario’s places of 2,500 people or more and the median across all Canadian towns that size; reserves and entire cities are excluded from both.
- 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 Sables-Spanish Rivers’s residents
Is Sables-Spanish Rivers good for families?
15% of residents are under 15 (Canada’s towns: 16%); couple families are 57% of households and one-parent families 8.3%. Schools near Sables-Spanish Rivers are on its Schools page.
What is the median income in Sables-Spanish Rivers?
Half of Sables-Spanish Rivers’s households had more than $70,500 in 2020, before tax; across Canada’s towns the median was $86,000.
What is the population of Sables-Spanish Rivers?
About 3,412, by Statistics Canada’s estimate for July 2025. The 2021 Census found 3,237 people in Sables-Spanish Rivers, 2% more than 2016.
What is the average age in Sables-Spanish Rivers?
The median age is 50.4, older than 86% of Canadian towns. 15% are under 15 and 24% 65 or older.
Is Sables-Spanish Rivers bilingual?
Across Canada’s towns a typical 7.5% are bilingual; here 14% are. Another 0.3% speak only French and 85% only English, and French is the first language of 9.1%.
How diverse is Sables-Spanish Rivers?
Immigrants: 3.6% (Canada’s towns: 17%). Visible minority: 1.6%. Indigenous identity: 21%.
What religion are people in Sables-Spanish Rivers?
35% said they have no religion and 65% that they are Christian; 0.3% named another faith.
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).