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Urban expansion continues across Ontario

Rural Ontario Institute highlights changing demographics


Brian Hess
Farms.com

Rural Ontario’s population continues to climb at a slower rate than cities, according to the Rural Ontario Institute’s (ROI) recently-released Consensus.

Non-metro Ontario residents comprised 19 per cent of Ontario’s population in 2016 – down from 20 per cent in 2011.

Ontario still has the largest rural population of all Canadian provinces, according the ROI.

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The province’s rural residents totalled 2.5 million last year.

Non-metro areas have grown 2 per cent since 2011. Numbers have continued to rise since 1966.

Other key statistics include:
• Approximately one in five Ontarians live outside of a metropolitan region.
• Rural areas tend to grow more slowly than urban areas.
• Population growth in large rural areas over time results in some of these areas being reclassified as urban.

The Consensus, released every five years, has become an eagerly anticipated document.

“The value of this report is that people interested in how their area is doing can compare themselves to overall trends,” Norman Ragetlie, Director of Policy and Stakeholder Engagement at the ROI, said in the release.

“We see regional differences in rates of growth and decline and differences within regions, where some communities next door to one another are growing and others declining.”


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Funds Ditch Ag Commodities, Chase Stocks Amid an End to Middle East War, & Trade Deal Buzz

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The 12-day war between Iran-Israel came to an end sending crude oil futures plunging as the big fund speculators removed the war risk premium.

The weather risk premium in the Ag complex is sending corn, wheat and soybean futures lower on month-end selling ahead of the market moving USDA quarterly grain stocks and acreage reports on June 30th.

Instead, funds were chasing and sending tech stocks higher with the S&P 500/NASDAQ indexes setting new all-time record highs!

June 1 USDA Hogs and pigs report was slightly bearish while the U.S. $ Index traded to new contract lows as the de-dollarization that began in 2014 continues.

Feed in the form of soybean meal futures for livestock producers got cheaper, trading to new contract lows.

The Stats Canada seeded acreage update was bullish canola and wheat.