Who Lives in Rural Areas?
• One in five Canadian women live in rural areas [1] and of these, only 2% live on farms. [2] • Ontario has the largest rural population in Canada; however, due to the province’s comparatively high urban population, only 19.4% live in rural or remote areas. [1] • Almost half (47%) of all Aboriginal women in Canada live in rural areas. [3] Of all the provinces, Ontario has the highest number of Aboriginal people. [4] One in five people who identify as North American Indian, Métis or Inuit live in this province; however, they represent only 2% of Ontario’s population. [5] Rural Occupational Trends • Many rural and remote communities experience “boom or bust” cycles of employment because their economies are dependent upon primary production, such as agriculture or resource development, [6] and unstable manufacturing industries, such as automotive and food processing. [7] • Rural women are more likely to be self-employed than their urban counterparts. Fourteen percent of women in rural and
