Photo: Gabriel Picard · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.4 jobs for each resident in work, most of Saint-Raphaël commutes out
The median household in Saint-Raphaël had $69,200 before tax in 2020, against $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns. Out of work in May 2021: 6.3% of Saint-Raphaël’s labour force, and the middle of Canadian towns sits at 9.9%. Most commutes from Saint-Raphaël take well under an hour: the average is 30.3 minutes, and 6.6% take 60 minutes or longer.
What Saint-Raphaël’s work numbers say
Less unemployment than most towns
Unemployment was 6.3% at the 2021 census, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns. The Labour Force Survey for the wider area read 2.3% in October 2026. Unemployment ↓
Lower incomes than most towns
The median household had $69,200 before tax in 2020; the middle of Canadian towns is $85,900. Household income ↓
Longer trips than most towns
The average trip to work is 30.3 minutes (26 in the middle of Canadian towns), and 6.6% 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.
Saint-Raphaël grades C− for jobs and income
Better than 24% 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.
In Saint-Raphaël, 78% of people aged 15 to 64 have a job
None of the 5 other places of 2,500 people or more in the Bellechasse census division has a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
Add those looking for a job to those with one, and 63% of residents 15 and over were in the labour force. Counting retirees, 60% of everyone aged 15 and over was working. The Labour Force Survey’s employment rate for the wider area was 61% in October 2026. Statistics Canada counted on 11 May 2021, with much of the country under pandemic rules: more people were out of work or at home than usual.
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.
What households in Saint-Raphaël earn
Before tax, 2020: lower than in 68% of Canadian towns.
Every other place of 2,500 or more in the Bellechasse census division has a higher median. Against the middle of Quebec’s towns ($74,100), Saint-Raphaël’s median is 7% below. Read the incomes as 2020’s, before tax: pandemic benefits such as CERB are in them, and they raised many low incomes for that year.
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 Saint-Raphaël
Timed exactly, the average is 26.7 minutes (Statistics Canada). The middle of Quebec’s towns averages 26.5 minutes. Only 23% get to work within a quarter-hour, against 31% in the middle of Quebec’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.
Commuting time at the 2021 Census, to work only, for people who travel to a usual workplace or have none fixed.
Each working day, more people leave Saint-Raphaël for work than come in
890 residents of Saint-Raphaël had a usual place of work at the 2021 census, and 315 people had theirs in Saint-Raphaël, wherever they lived.
Each person commuting in is matched by about 6 residents going out. The job is inside the municipality for 22% of its commuters (70% in the middle of Canadian towns).
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
78% of Saint-Raphaël’s residents in work leave it to work; Lévis takes the most
- Saint-François-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud25
- Armagh25
- Lévis20
- Saint-Damien-de-Buckland10
- Saint-Nérée-de-Bellechasse10
- Saint-Gervais10
- Saint-Charles-de-Bellechasse10
In the other direction the biggest source is Saint-François-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud, with 25.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
2021 Census, people with a usual place of work: where residents of Saint-Raphaël work and where people who work there live, the ten largest each way.
Without a car, 3.8% of Saint-Raphaël’s commuters get to work
Nearly everyone drives: 96% of commuters go by car, truck or van. Only 9.7% worked at home on census day, against 21% in the middle of Canadian towns. Transit barely figures here, against 3.5% in the middle of Canadian towns.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
How residents who commute got to work, 2021 Census; working at home is counted apart.
EI claims in the Bellechasse census division run 27% above their 2019 level
In January 2021 it reached 1,810, the most in the series and 3.2 times the 2019 average. Roughly 3.2 in every 100 people aged 15 to 64 in the division draw EI. Compared with a year earlier, the count in August 2026 rose by 1%.
Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance beneficiaries by census division (14-10-0323): all income benefits, not seasonally adjusted. EI counts are context, not part of any grade.
People receiving Employment Insurance each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100). Behind EI beneficiaries sits data gathered across the Bellechasse census division, with Saint-Raphaël one part of it.
Walkability in Saint-Raphaël: graded C+
Better than 36% of Canadian towns on two measures together.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
Work in and around Saint-Raphaël
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Raphaël | 78% | 6.3% | $69K | 30.3 min | C− | C+ |
| Saint-François-de-la-Rivière-du-Sud 8.6 km | 84% | 3.7% | $72K | 21.3 min | A− | B− |
| Saint-Vallier 11.5 km | 86% | 1.8% | $75K | 27.7 min | B | B |
| Armagh 14.2 km | 67% | 11% | $56K | 30.6 min | D− | C |
| Saint-Gervais 14.2 km | 92% | 4.8% | $74K | 22.7 min | A | B+ |
| Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse 14.6 km | 78% | 6.9% | $85K | 25.2 min | B+ | A− |
| Saint-Charles-de-Bellechasse 14.8 km | 85% | 3.9% | $81K | 24.5 min | A− | 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 Saint-Raphaël, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- 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. Half of households had more than this before tax in 2020, half less, counting every source of income. For a neighbourhood we estimate the median from the income brackets of its dissemination areas.
- 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. 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.
- Employment Insurance. Monthly EI recipients across the census division: a pulse of the local job market rather than a measure of who is out of work.
- The Labour Force Survey. Statistics Canada surveys households every month; the results come out for metro areas and economic regions, never for single towns, and keep the rate current after 2021.
- 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.
Questions about work in Saint-Raphaël
How many jobs are there in Saint-Raphaël?
The 2021 census found about 315 people with their usual workplace in Saint-Raphaël, or 0.4 for each resident who travels to a fixed job. Statistics Canada counted 73 businesses with employees in June 2026.
What is the unemployment rate in Saint-Raphaël?
The 2021 census found 6.3% unemployed, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns; the Labour Force Survey’s latest, for the Chaudière-Appalaches economic region, is 2.3% (October 2026).
How do people in Saint-Raphaël get to work?
96% of commuters drive, 3.8% walk; 9.7% of everyone in work worked at home on census day.
How long is the commute from Saint-Raphaël?
The average commute is 30.3 minutes; 23% of trips take under 15 minutes and 6.6% an hour or more.
Where do people in Saint-Raphaël work?
22% work in Saint-Raphaël itself. Of those who leave, the most go to Lévis (205), then Québec (75).
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).