A tale of two cities in one National Capital Region: Ottawa–Gatineau at a glance

The Kichi Zibi, or Ottawa River, has been the heart of Algonquin territory from time immemorial. The name Ottawa likely comes from the Algonquin word “adawe,” which means “to trade.” The fur trade was prominent in the early years of European settlement, while lumber was king for much of the 19th century. Today, a large number of Ottawa and Gatineau residents work in the public service.

There are five bridges connecting Ottawa and Gatineau, with many locals making the trek to the other side of the river to work, study, shop or play every day. Beyond the bridges, let’s take a look at how statistically connected these two cities were at the time of the 2021 Census.

Ottawa is growing faster than Gatineau

Ottawa is by far the biggest and fastest-growing city in the National Capital Region, with its population growing by 8.9% from five years earlier to just over 1 million in 2021. By way of comparison, Gatineau’s population grew 5.4% during this period to 291,041.

The residents of Ottawa were a bit older than their counterparts across the river (41.5 years versus 41.2 years) in 2021, while Gatineau laid claim to a larger share of youth aged 14 and younger (17.2% versus 15.7%).

Gatineau has a larger share of residents working in public administration than Ottawa

Not surprisingly, given that it’s the National Capital Region, the public sector is by far the largest employer in both cities.

Over one in four residents of Gatineau (26.2%) in the labour force at the time of the 2021 Census were working in public administration, compared with over one in five in Ottawa (21.1%). By way of comparison, 6.2% of the Canadian labour force was working in public administration at the time of the 2021 Census.

Meanwhile, the days of the fur or lumber trade are a distant memory, with relatively few residents of Ottawa (0.4%) or Gatineau (0.3%) employed in agriculture, forestry, fishing or hunting.

The median household income is one-fifth higher in Ottawa compared with Gatineau

At the time of the 2021 Census, the median household income in Ottawa before taxes ($102,000) was one-fifth higher compared with Gatineau ($82,000) and was also higher compared with the national median household income ($84,000).

Residents of Ottawa (42.3%) were also much more likely to report annual household after-tax income of over $100,000 than residents of Gatineau (28.0%) or Canada overall (31.9%).

More people live in “core housing need” in Ottawa than in Gatineau

Although households in Ottawa reported higher income than their neighbours across the river in 2021, households in Gatineau were much less likely to report core housing need.

Core housing need refers to “whether a private household’s housing falls below at least one of the indicator thresholds for housing adequacy, affordability or suitability, and would have to spend 30% or more of its total before-tax income to pay the median rent of alternative local housing that is acceptable.”

Over one in four households in Ottawa were in core housing need (27.9%) in 2021, over double the share in Gatineau (13.2%).

Nationally, one in four (25.3%) Canadian households were in core housing need.

Just over one in four Gatineau residents in the labour force work in Ontario

One big difference between residents of Ottawa and Gatineau is the likelihood of working in another province.

In 2021, just over one in four Gatineau residents in the labour force (26.8%) crossed the Ottawa River to work, compared with 2.8% of Ottawa workers crossing in the opposite direction.

Gatineau workers were more likely to commute by motor vehicle than Ottawa workers (81.4% versus 76.8%) while Ottawa workers were more likely to commute by public transit than Gatineau workers (11.2% versus 10.7%).

Approximately two-thirds of workers in Ottawa (70.1%) and Gatineau (66.2%) could commute to work in under 30 minutes.

Gatineau households much more likely to report speaking both English and French at home compared with Ottawa residents

Both official languages were much more likely to be spoken in households in Gatineau (65.0%) than in Ottawa (36.4%) in 2021.

In Ottawa, 60.6% of households reported speaking English only at home, 1.4% reported speaking French only and 1.5% reported speaking neither English nor French.

In Gatineau, 8.4% of households reported speaking English only at home, 25.9% reported speaking French only and 0.7% reported speaking neither English nor French.

When it comes to the language used at work, the vast majority (91.2%) of Ottawa households reported speaking only English at work, while 4.5% spoke only French.

Over half of the households (57.1%) in Gatineau reported using only French at work while just over one-third (34.1%) reported speaking only English.

The Indigenous communities of Ottawa and Gatineau today

According to the 2021 Census, just over 38,000 residents of these two cities were Indigenous, with 26,395 living in Ottawa and 11,705 in Gatineau.

As a share of the total population, Gatineau (4.1%) had more Indigenous residents than Ottawa (2.6%), but both were below the national average of 5.0%.

In 2021, Ottawa was home to 13,300 First Nations, 10,545 Métis and 1,270 Inuit residents.

Across the river, Gatineau was home to 6,010 First Nations, 4,875 Métis and 315 Inuit residents.