Photo: Larry from Charlottetown, PEI, Canada · CC BY 2.0Few Canadian towns have household incomes as low as O'Leary’s
O'Leary had an unemployment rate of 8.5% at the 2021 census, and the middle of Canadian towns sits at 9.9%. 490 people have their usual place of work in O'Leary, against 260 residents who travel to a job. The 2021 census found 67% of working-age people in O'Leary employed; the middle of Canadian towns is 73%.
Where O'Leary stands out on work
Fewer people in work than most towns
With 67% of its 15-to-64s in work in 2021, against 73% in the middle of Canadian towns, it has 49% of all adults employed. In work ↓
Lower incomes than most towns
Household income at the median was $45,600 in 2020, before tax; Canadian towns have $85,900 at the middle. Household income ↓
A local job centre
With 490 jobs based in O'Leary and 260 working residents, the ratio compares with 0.8 in the middle of Canadian towns. The daily tide ↓
Shorter trips than most towns
The average trip to work is 18.9 minutes (26 in the middle of Canadian towns), and 3.3% 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.
O'Leary grades C− for jobs and income
Better than 18% of Canadian towns on three measures together.
Its strongest measure is trip times; its weakest, household income.
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.
How many in O'Leary were working in 2021
None of the 3 other places of 2,500 people or more in the Prince census division has a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
The labour force, people 15 and over with a job or seeking one, took in 53% of residents that age. Counting retirees, 49% 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.
The median household in O'Leary had $45,600 in 2020
The middle of Prince Edward Island’s towns is $82,000, and O'Leary is 44% below it. Every other place of 2,500 or more in the Prince 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).
Before tax, 2020: lower than in almost any Canadian town.
Every working day, O'Leary’s workforce grows by 82%
For every resident who leaves O'Leary for work, about 2 people come in. 33% of residents who commute work inside the municipality, against 70% in the middle of Canadian towns.
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
A shorter commute than the middle of Canadian towns: 18.9 minutes from O'Leary
The middle of Prince Edward Island’s towns averages 23.3 minutes. A quarter-hour or less for 48% of commuters, against 40% in the middle of Prince Edward Island’s towns. Long trips, an hour or more, are about as common as in the middle of Prince Edward Island’s towns: 3.3%. Statistics Canada’s own average, timed exactly rather than by band, is 14.4 minutes.
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.
403 people come into O'Leary to work, most from O'Leary (Prince Edward Island part) and Alberton
- O'Leary (Prince Edward Island part)145
- Alberton125
- Alberton25
- Tignish25
- Miminegash20
- West Point20
- Tyne Valley15
- Charlottetown10
- Miscouche10
- Greenmount-Montrose10
- O'Leary (Prince Edward Island part)110
- Alberton35
- Borden-Carleton10
- Central Prince10
- Alberton10
82% of the people who work in O'Leary live outside it, 145 of them in O'Leary (Prince Edward Island part), 2 km away. Of residents who leave for work, most head to O'Leary (Prince Edward Island part) (110).
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
On foot, by bike, bus or train: 3.3% of O'Leary’s commuters
Home was the workplace for 6.2%, under the 21% in the middle of Canadian towns. Transit barely figures here, against 3.5% in the middle of Canadian towns. Nearly everyone drives: 95% of commuters go by car, truck or van.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
In the Prince census division, 5% fewer people receive EI than in 2019
For each 100 residents of working age in the division, about 10.5 are on EI. Compared with a year earlier, the count in August 2026 fell by 12%. In February 2021 it reached 8,480, the most in the series and 1.7 times the 2019 average.
Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance beneficiaries by census division (14-10-0323): all income benefits, not seasonally adjusted. EI beneficiaries published for the Prince census division, not by town. EI counts are context, not part of any grade.
People receiving Employment Insurance each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
The walkability of O'Leary: B+
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
How the places next to O'Leary compare on work
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O'Leary | 67% | 8.5% | $46K | 18.9 min | C− | B+ |
| O'Leary 1.6 km | 70% | 18% | $69K | 23.5 min | C | D |
| Alberton 13 km | 80% | 13% | $83K | 19.8 min | A | D |
| Alberton 16.4 km | 71% | 10% | $54K | 18 min | C | 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 O'Leary, 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.
- In work. Everyone with a job, whatever their age, divided by the residents aged 15 to 64 at the 2021 Census: below the municipality the census doesn’t split work by age, and this is the one rate every town and neighbourhood can be given.
- Unemployment. It counts only people who wanted work and had none in May 2021, as a share of those working or searching; students and retirees who weren’t looking stay out of both sides.
- Household income. The census median total income of households in 2020, before tax; a neighbourhood’s is estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups.
- Trip times. Our average assumes everyone in, say, the 15-to-29-minute band takes 22 minutes. Across all the bands that runs a shade above Statistics Canada’s measured average.
- Where people commute. Jobs count everyone whose usual workplace lies in the municipality, residents or commuters from elsewhere, from Statistics Canada’s home-by-workplace table.
- Which towns we compare. Medians over towns and neighbourhoods of at least 2,500 residents. Whole cities would swamp them and reserves sit outside the rankings, so neither is in.
Questions about work in O'Leary
What is the average household income in O'Leary?
Before tax, half the households in O'Leary had more than $45,600 in 2020; the middle of Canadian towns is $85,900.
How do people in O'Leary get to work?
By car: 95% of commuters, 3.3% walk; on census day 6.2% of those in work worked from home.
How long is the commute from O'Leary?
18.9 minutes is the average trip, with 48% of commuters there in under 15 minutes and 3.3% taking an hour or more.
Where do people in O'Leary work?
33% work in O'Leary itself. Of those who leave, the most go to O'Leary (Prince Edward Island part) (110), then Alberton (35).
How many jobs are there in O'Leary?
The 2021 census counted about 490 people working in O'Leary: 1.9 jobs for every resident who commutes to a fixed workplace. In June 2026, 64 businesses with employees were on Statistics Canada’s count.
What is the unemployment rate in O'Leary?
About 8.5%, by the census of May 2021, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns.
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, 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).