Essex County population increased 6.1 per cent since 2016
The County of Essex recorded a 6.1 per cent population increase between 2016 and 2021.
According to 2021 Census of Population numbers released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, the population of Windsor and Essex County as a region jumped six per cent from 398,718 in 2016 to 422,630 in 2021.
The total population of the County's municipalities rose 6.1 per cent from 181,530 in 2016 to 192,700 in 2021, a difference of 11,170 people.
Lakeshore led Essex County municipalities in population growth, rising 10.4 per cent from a population of 36,611 in 2016 to 40,140 in 2021.
Gary McNamara, Warden of Essex County and Mayor of Tecumseh, says we've seen an exodus from the big centres during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Folks are working from home and found that it maybe makes sense, I don't need to be so close to the downtown area of Toronto to do my work," he says.
McNamara says you're also seeing people who are retiring and moving out of the Greater Toronto Area are looking at smaller centres like ours.
"That still can accommodate and deliver the level of services that they're accustomed to and here where are. The climate is a little bit better, locality is good and it's all playing into our region that this is a great place to live, work and play," he says.
McNamara says why wouldn't you want to be in this area, calling it big city living with small town costs.
"We're so close to metropolitan Detroit area, all the major sports, we've go a university and college, a 160 kilometres of shoreline and some of the best sports fishing anywhere in the province," he adds.
LaSalle's population increased 8.4 per cent from 30,180 to 32,721, followed by Leamington, rising 7.6 per cent from 27,595 to 29,680.
Amherstburg recorded a 7.2 per cent increase with the population, moving to 23,524 in 2021 from 21,936 in 2016.
Essex saw its population increased to 21,216 in 2021, a 3.9 per cent increase over the 20,427 recorded in 2016.
Kingsville had an increase of 2.6 per cent with the population moving to 22,119 in 2021 from 21,552 in 2016.
Tecumseh had the smallest increase at 0.3 percent as the population moved to 23,300 in 2021 from 23,229 in 2016.