Canada’s Census of Environment: Resource-based communities, 2016 and 2021

In 2021, close to 1% of the Canadian population was living in resource-based communities, that is, communities with the highest contribution from a resource industry (agriculture, forestry or fishing) to their economic base. Renewable resources from neighbouring ecosystems, such as fish, wood and agricultural biomass, are particularly important to these communities. Therefore, the people who live and work in these communities depend more directly on these ecosystem resources than the general population, which can also make them more vulnerable to ecosystem changes. These new statistics, produced as part of the Census of Environment, demonstrate important links between ecosystems, the economy, society and individual well-being.​