Matane, Quebec: The gateway to the Gaspé

The town of Matane, located on the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec, was home to 18,474 people according to the 2021 Census of Population, 420 fewer compared with five years earlier. But from July 1, 2021 to July 1, 2022, Matane’s pace of growth increased 1.4%.

Over half (57.5%) of the residents of Matane were aged 15 to 64 years based on data from the 2021 Census, with seniors (29.7%) outnumbering children 14 years and younger (12.8%). The average age in Matane at the time of the census was 48.2 years, and the median age was 52.8 years. This gap can in part be explained by Matane’s long history of young adults leaving the census agglomeration.

Matane had the 10th largest share of people aged 65 years and older of any city or town in Canada in 2022.

During the 2021 Census, we counted 180 people aged 90 to 99 years living in Matane, and 5 people aged 100 years and older.

In Quebec overall, there were more seniors (20.6%) than children (16.4%) in 2021, and the average age was 42.8 years.

Housing in Matane

In 2021, 63.9% of private dwellings were single-detached homes, while almost one-quarter (21.7%) were apartment buildings with fewer than five storeys.

With 18,010 people occupying private households in Matane, the average household size was 2.0 people per household in 2021.

The average size of census families in Matane was 2.6 people in 2021. Among census families with children, 1.7 was the average number of children per family. 

There were 755 single-parent families in 2021, 540 (71.5%) in which the parent was a woman.

Although people living alone represented 20.5% of the households in Matane, of persons not in census families, 82.6% lived alone, while 6.5% lived with other relatives and 10.7% lived with non-relatives only.

Retail trade is the biggest employer in Matane

Retail trade (1,285 people) was the biggest employer in Matane at the time of the 2021 Census, followed by health care and social assistance (1,245 people) and manufacturing (1,025 people). 

While Matane is renowned for its shrimp (known locally as crevettes de Matane), more people reported working in the construction sector (535 people) than in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (215 people).

The median after-tax income of Matane residents is well below the national average

The median after-tax income of Matane residents in 2021 ($32,800) was slightly lower than the national average in 2020 ($36,800).

Over half of the income Matane residents declared on their tax forms in 2020 came from employment (59.0%) and more than one-quarter came from government transfers (27.3%), from which 4.5% corresponded to COVID-19 benefits.

Crime in the Matane Region is below the provincial average

Crime in the Matane Region, as reported by the Quebec Provincial Police and measured by our Crime Severity Index (CSI), stood at 48.02 in 2021, slightly less than the provincial average of 54.30.

The CSI in Matane fell from 40.44 in 2019 to 37.76 in 2020 before rising again in 2021. The province of Quebec experienced a similar trend, with the CSI dropping from 55.78 in 2019 to 51.59 in 2020 before it rose again in 2021.

Nevertheless, the CSI in the Matane Region in 2021 remained well below its highest recorded value of 89.24 in 2005.

Police-reported violent crime in the Matane Region, as measured by the Violent CSI, was below the provincial average (76.64 in Matane versus 82.95 in the province) in 2021. The Non-violent CSI was also below the provincial average (37.61 in Matane versus 43.87 in the province) in 2021.