Winkler: A young city in every sense of the word

Winkler, Manitoba’s fourth largest community, became a city 21 years ago. In Winkler, one in four people were aged 14 years or younger as of July 1, 2022, making it Canada’s youngest census agglomeration.

There were 740 more people living in Winkler on July 1, 2022 compared with the same day a year earlier, bringing the total population to 35,666.

More births than deaths were recorded in Winkler from July 2021 to July 2022, leading to a natural increase of 291. Winkler’s population is young, with almost twice as many youth aged 14 years and younger (24.8%) living there as of July 1, 2022 as seniors aged 65 years and older (12.5%). By way of comparison, less than one in five Canadians were aged 14 years or younger nationally (15.6%) as of July 1, 2022.

The manufacturing industry is the biggest employer in Winkler

Manufacturing (1,365 people) was the biggest employer in Winkler at the time of the 2021 Census of Population, followed by health care and social assistance (905 people) and retail trade (775 people). 

In 2021, the construction industry in Winkler employed 565 people, and the educational services industry employed 440 people.

Overall, there were 6,650 people in the labour force (all industries) in Winkler.

Housing in Winkler

In 2021, 62.4% of private dwellings were single-detached homes, while just over one-tenth (13.6%) were row houses and 8.4% were semi-detached homes.

With 13,560 people occupying private households in Winkler, the average household size was 2.7 people per household in 2021.

The average size of census families in Winkler was 3.2 people in 2021. Among census families with children, 2.2 was the average number of children per family, slightly higher than the provincial average of 1.9.

There were 325 single-parent families in 2021, 270 (83.1%) in which the parent was a woman.

People living alone represented 9.3% of the households in Winkler. Of persons not in census families, 67.3% lived alone, while 13.1% lived with other relatives and 19.6% lived with non-relatives only.

Crime in Winkler is below the provincial average

Police-reported crime in the Winkler municipality, as measured by the Crime Severity Index (CSI), stood at 42.58 in 2021, nearly three times less than the provincial average of 126.92.

The CSI in Winkler fell from 46.87 in 2019 to 41.60 in 2020 before rising slightly again in 2021. By comparison, the CSI in the province of Manitoba fell from 139.65 in 2019 to 125.84 in 2020 before it rose again in 2021. The drop in 2020 was much to do with the COVID-19 pandemic, as police-reported crime was down across the country.

Nevertheless, the CSI in the Winkler municipality in 2021 remained well below its highest recorded value of 108.81 in 1999.

Police-reported violent crime in the Winkler municipality (48.24), as measured by the Violent CSI, was nearly four times lower than the provincial average (182.46) in 2021. The Non-violent CSI in Winkler (40.44) was less than half the provincial average (106.64) in 2021.