Photo: Mario Hains · CC BY-SA 3.0Bury has 0.1 jobs for every resident in work, so most commute out
70% of people aged 15 to 64 in Bury had a job at the 2021 census; the middle of Canadian towns is 73%. The median household in Bury had $66,900 before tax in 2020; the middle of Canadian towns is $85,900. From Bury, the drive or ride to work averages 32.5 minutes, with 8.9% going an hour or longer.
Work in Bury: the figures worth knowing
Lower incomes than most towns
The middle of Canadian towns is $85,900, and the median household here had $66,900 before tax in 2020. Household income ↓
Longer trips than most towns
The average trip to work is 32.5 minutes (26 in the middle of Canadian towns), and 8.9% 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.
Bury grades D for jobs and income
Better than 6% of Canadian towns on three measures together.
Its strongest measure is the share of 15-to-64s in work; its weakest, trip times.
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.
Household income in Bury
Before tax, 2020: lower than in 74% of Canadian towns.
2 of the 4 other places of 2,500+ in the Le Haut-Saint-François census division have a higher median. Bury’s median is 10% below the middle of Quebec’s towns ($74,100). Incomes here are 2020’s and include the pandemic payments, CERB among them, that propped up the lower end.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: median total income of households in 2020, before tax (a neighbourhood’s estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups).
The length of the trip to work in Bury
Trips under 15 minutes: 22%, fewer than the 31% in the middle of Quebec’s towns. Timed exactly, the average is 29.6 minutes (Statistics Canada). In the middle of Quebec’s towns, the average commute is 26.5 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.
Bury empties a little on a working day
It sends out some 16 workers for every one it takes in. The job is inside the municipality for 8.5% of its commuters.
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
92% of Bury’s residents in work leave it to work; Sherbrooke takes the most
- Scotstown10
- Sherbrooke130
- East Angus50
- Cookshire-Eaton40
- Coaticook15
- Lac-Mégantic10
- La Patrie10
Coming the other way, Scotstown sends the most (10).
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
Work and the working-age population of Bury
None of the 4 other places of 2,500 people or more in the Le Haut-Saint-François census division has a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
The participation rate, everyone 15 and over working or looking for work, was 58%. Counting retirees, 54% of everyone aged 15 and over was working. For the wider area, the Labour Force Survey had 58% in work in October 2026. Census day was 11 May 2021, in the pandemic’s third wave: unemployment ran high and many worked from home, so these figures describe that spring rather than today.
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.
Without a car, 2.2% of Bury’s commuters get to work
Only 15% worked at home on census day, against 21% in the middle of Canadian towns. Hardly anyone takes transit to work, where the middle of Canadian towns has 3.5%. The car is the way to work for 98% of commuters.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
EI claims in the Le Haut-Saint-François census division run 44% above their 2019 level
The count topped out in January 2021 at 1,360 people, 2.8 times the 2019 average. Roughly 4.5 in every 100 people aged 15 to 64 in the division draw EI. Set against the same month a year before, 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. EI beneficiaries: one figure for all of the Le Haut-Saint-François 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).
Bury earns D for walkability
Better than 9% of Canadian towns on two measures together.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
Around Bury: jobs, pay and the commute
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bury | 70% | 7.9% | $67K | 32.5 min | D | D |
| Westbury 14.1 km | 73% | 4% | $82K | 23.6 min | B− | C− |
| Dudswell 14.8 km | 83% | 5.9% | $71K | 28.4 min | C+ | C− |
| East Angus 15.7 km | 72% | 6.4% | $60K | 23.6 min | C− | A− |
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 Bury, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- The Labour Force Survey. Monthly, and only for metro areas and economic regions. It is the up-to-date rate we set beside the census’s 2021 snapshot.
- In work. People in work of any age over residents aged 15 to 64 (2021 Census). The census doesn’t cross work with age below the municipality, so this is the one rate every town and neighbourhood has; retirees don’t weigh on it.
- Unemployment. A census-day figure: people without a job who were looking, divided by all those working or looking, ages 15 and up.
- Household income. Taken from the 2021 Census, which asked about 2020: wages, pensions, investment income and government transfers together, before income tax, for the median household.
- 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. Who travels where, from the census: workers with a regular workplace, sorted by the municipality they live in and the one they work in.
- Employment Insurance. A monthly count of Employment Insurance beneficiaries for the whole census division. It tracks the local job market, but it is not an unemployment rate.
- 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 Bury
Where do people in Bury work?
8.5% work in Bury itself. Of those who leave, the most go to Sherbrooke (130), then East Angus (50).
How many jobs are there in Bury?
About 40 people had their usual place of work in Bury at the 2021 census, 0.1 for each working resident with a fixed workplace. In June 2026, 33 businesses with employees were on Statistics Canada’s count.
What is the unemployment rate in Bury?
On census day in May 2021, unemployment stood at 7.9% of the labour force (9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns). For a recent figure, the Labour Force Survey put the Estrie economic region at 3.7% in October 2026.
What is the average household income in Bury?
Before tax, half the households in Bury had more than $66,900 in 2020; the middle of Canadian towns is $85,900.
How do people in Bury get to work?
98% of commuters go by car, 2.2% walk. On census day 15% of everyone in work stayed home to work.
How long is the commute from Bury?
On average 32.5 minutes; 22% take under 15 minutes and 8.9% take an hour or longer.
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).