Ottawa–Gatineau

Ottawa–Gatineau among the six largest metros

Ottawa–Gatineau's labour market is among the softest of the six. The unemployment rate is 7.1%, level with Edmonton's and Toronto's as the highest of the six, and was 7.3% a year earlier, a much smaller fall than theirs or Calgary's. The employment rate of 60.7% is the lowest of the six. Employment is 0.9% above a year ago, fifth of six. The metropolitan area spans two provinces and a large federal workforce; the data here do not separate that workforce.

The population grew 2.3% in the year to July 2025, third of six, with net interprovincial migration of 3,531 persons in the latest annual figure and net non-permanent residents of 2,922.

Housing

New-home prices changed +1.0% in the twelve months to September 2026, the second-largest increase of the six, and only Montréal's is larger; the index covers the Ottawa–Gatineau metropolitan area on the Ontario side. Builders started 979 homes in the latest month, the fewest of the six, and 21,758 are under construction. Two-bedroom rents in purpose-built buildings averaged C$1,757 in the October 2025 survey, fourth of six, with a vacancy rate of 3.1%. Consumer prices in the Ontario part rose 3.0% in the twelve months to September 2026, level with Montréal's and Vancouver's at one decimal.

Output

Gross domestic product at basic prices for the Ontario part of the metropolitan area was C$88.0 billion in 2022, 30.9% higher than five years earlier in current dollars. Because it leaves out the Quebec side, it is not ranked against the other five, which are whole metropolitan areas. Manufacturing shipments were 1.9% higher in August 2026 than a year earlier, the smallest increase of the six.

What it means for decisions

For an employer, there is more slack here than in the Alberta metros, with a lower employment rate than either and a higher unemployment rate than Calgary's. For a builder, the low number of starts alongside rising new-home prices is the notable pairing. For a household, the labour market is the constraint.

What the data cannot say: they do not separate public-sector from private employment, the Ontario and Quebec sides of the metropolitan area, wages or resale prices; some series cover only the Ontario part. Nothing here is a forecast.

1. Jobs: 868 thousand people are employed, 0.9% against a year ago; unemployment is 7.1%. The employment rate, 60.7%, is 6th of 6 among the six. Labour

2. Prices: inflation in the Ontario part is 3.0%, against 3.1% for Canada. The city index is held here for all items only. Prices

3. People: the population changed 2.3% in the year to July 2025, 3rd of 6 among the six metros. Population

4. Housing: new-home prices in the Ontario part changed +1.0% in the twelve months to September 2026, with 21,758 homes under construction. CMHC puts the additional starts needed each year at 22,000 to 27,000. Housing

5. Industry: manufacturing shipments are C$682 million a month, 1.9% against a year ago. Industry

6. Connections: the links that reach Ottawa–Gatineau are national or provincial, and none is measured for the city. Connections

What happened

At basic prices and in current dollars, the Ottawa–Gatineau (Ontario part) economy produced C$88.0 billion of output in 2022, the latest reference year in Statistics Canada's table, equal to 8.9% of Ontario's total of C$987.8 billion. Among the six large metropolitan areas it ranked 6th of 6 by size, but that sets the Ontario part alone against the whole of the other five. Statistics Canada publishes this table for the Ontario and Quebec parts of Ottawa–Gatineau separately, so the figures here describe the Ontario part only and are not the whole metropolitan area.

Measured in current dollars, output was 61.1% higher in 2022 than in 2009 and 19.1% higher than in 2019. Ontario as a whole was 77.2% higher than in 2009 and 18.5% higher than in 2019. Over the same period since 2009 the other metropolitan areas grew 72.4% in Calgary, 54.6% in Edmonton, 85.0% in Toronto, 98.1% in Vancouver and 75.3% in Montréal.

Why it happened

Not assessed. The table is in current dollars, so these changes include price increases, and it is not divided by population, so the figures do not separate growth in the number of people from growth in output per person. This section reports the data; attributed explanations of the differences are in the economic story and local-economy sections of this page.

Why it matters

GDP at basic prices is the broadest measure of local production that Statistics Canada publishes for metropolitan areas. It shows how large the local economy is and how its share of the provincial total compares, but not who earns the income, what is produced, or how the economy is doing now.

History

The series starts in 2009 and ends in 2022. A fall in output in any year in between would show in the chart; no year-by-year explanation is offered here.

Across geographies

What it influences

Not assessed. No relationship in the recorded graph links metropolitan output to another variable.

Risks

The table ends in 2022 and describes nothing since; it cannot show the effects of recent changes in interest rates, trade policy, population or commodity prices on Ottawa–Gatineau (Ontario part).

What to watch

Statistics Canada's next release of table 36-10-0468-01. No release date for it is in the calendar this site holds, and none is assumed.

What happened

Ottawa–Gatineau's unemployment rate was 7.1% in October 2026 and employment was 868 thousand, 0.9% on a year earlier. The metropolitan population changed 2.3% in the year to July 2025. The average two-bedroom rent in purpose-built rental apartments was C$1,757 in the October 2025 survey with a vacancy rate of 3.1%, up from 2.3%. Units under construction were 21,758 at the end of September 2026.

Why it happened

Why it matters

History

Ottawa–Gatineau's unemployment rate has ranged from 3.8% (June 2022) to 10.4% (June 2020) over ten years, and the metropolitan population grew 22.6% over ten years.

Across geographies

Ottawa–Gatineau's unemployment rate is 7.1%, against 7.1% in Toronto and 6.9% in Montréal.

In October 2026 Quebec's unemployment rate was 5.7% and Ontario's 7.3%, the two provinces whose labour markets the region straddles.

What it influences

Risks

What to watch

Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey and population estimates, CMHC's starts and the autumn Rental Market Survey (release calendar), and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat's public-service population tables will show how public-sector employment and rental demand develop. No forecast for Ottawa–Gatineau from a primary source is cited, so none is given.

What happened

Ottawa–Gatineau's unemployment rate was 7.1% in October 2026 and employment was 868 thousand, 0.9% on a year earlier. In the 2021 Census, public administration accounted for 25.7% of the 661 thousand jobs located in the metropolitan area, health care and social assistance for 12.9% and professional, scientific and technical services for 10.7%. The Ontario part of the area produced C$88.0 billion of output in 2022; the Quebec part is published separately in the same table and is not shown here.

Those are a snapshot of where people work and what they produce, not a ranking of employers. The rest of this section uses organisations' own statements to say what sits behind them, and says each time which side of the river or which boundary a statement covers. The sourced story section of this report covers the federal plan and the rental market in more detail.

Why it happened

Federal employment and spending

Defence, procurement and technology

Universities and the airport

Why it matters

Strategy

Rail and infrastructure

Population and housing

History

Across geographies

Labour market by area

Housing rules differ by side

What it influences

Where the sources point to growth and to contraction

Risks

What to watch

The Treasury Board's next annual regional count, Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey by area and the next payroll release, Parliament's decision on the bill to make the Defence Investment Agency a Crown corporation, Mobilité Infra Québec's findings on the tramway (the mandate runs nine months from February 2026), CMHC's autumn rental survey, and the City of Ottawa's approved economic strategy.

Not covered by the sources cited, and so not described here: employer rankings, wages by industry for the metropolitan area, Kanata North employment, Stage 2 O-Train costs and opening dates, the City of Ottawa budget, the NCC, Conference Board or Bank of Canada regional outlooks, and the current office vacancy rate.

What happened

Ottawa–Gatineau's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate (three-month average) was 7.1% in October 2026, from 7.3% a year earlier. For comparison: Calgary's 6.6%, Edmonton's 7.1%, Toronto's 7.1%, Vancouver's 6.7%, Montréal's 6.9%. Employment of 868 thousand changed 0.9% over the year, against 6.2% in Calgary, 1.9% in Toronto and 1.2% in Vancouver.

The participation rate is 65.3% and the employment rate 60.7% (6th of 6 among the six areas, against 66.7% in Calgary and 62.2% in Toronto).

By industry, Statistics Canada's annual Labour Force Survey estimates (table 14-10-0468-01, annual averages, not seasonally adjusted) put average employment in Ottawa–Gatineau at 877 thousand in 2025, a change of -0.8% on the year before and of 9.5% since 2019. Goods-producing industries account for 11.1% of employed persons and services-producing industries for 88.9%; among the individual groups, public administration 22.1%, health care and social assistance 13.1% and professional, scientific and technical services 10.3% of employment. The table counts people by the industry of their main job and by where they live, so it is a measure of employment, not of output, wages or the number of businesses. The Ottawa–Gatineau figures cover the whole metropolitan area, Ontario and Quebec parts together. Estimates for a single industry group in one metropolitan area come from a small survey sample and are less steady than the total: Statistics Canada suppresses some cells, and the table is annual, so a one-year move in a small group should not be read as a trend. No sampling-error range is held with these series, so none is quoted; the monthly metropolitan rates above are three-month averages and are noisier than the annual figures. Wages for the metropolitan area are not held here; the Statistics Canada wage tables used cover provinces and Canada.

Why it happened

The data show where Ottawa–Gatineau stands, not why. Since the end of 2019 employment has changed 4.9% in Ottawa–Gatineau, 27.1% in Calgary and 10.9% in Toronto; the data held here cannot say why those paths differ.

Why it matters

Jobs matter for household income and housing demand. The employment rate says more than the unemployment rate about how much of the adult population is working, because people who stop looking for work leave the unemployment count.

History

Over ten years Ottawa–Gatineau's unemployment rate has averaged 5.6%, with a high of 10.4% in June 2020 and a low of 3.8% in June 2022.

Across geographies

Ottawa–Gatineau's rate minus Calgary's is 0.5 percentage points. As context, on a different definition (monthly, province-wide), Ontario's unemployment rate is 7.3% and Canada's 6.7%; these must not be read against the metropolitan three-month averages. Ottawa–Gatineau spans two provinces; Quebec's province-wide rate is 5.7% on the same basis.

What it influences

Jobs matter for household income and housing demand in the region. The relationship explorer lists the national and provincial links that reach the city, each with its evidence class.

Risks

Not assessed: the exposure of Ottawa–Gatineau's employment to particular industries or to US demand. The annual industry employment shown above describes the mix of jobs, not exposure.

What to watch

Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey (release dates in the calendar).

What happened

Consumer prices in the Ontario part of Ottawa–Gatineau were 3.0% higher in September 2026 than a year earlier (from 2.1% a year before), against 3.4% in Calgary, 2.1% in Toronto and 3.0% in Vancouver, and 3.1% for Canada. The Ottawa–Gatineau index covers the Ontario part only.

Why it happened

Why it matters

The CPI measures changes in prices, not their level, so a rate of change says nothing about how expensive the city is. The Ontario part's rate was 2.1% a year earlier; a rate that is falling or rising against its own recent past tells more than its rank. Because the index covers all items together, it cannot show whether housing, food or energy explains the difference.

History

The Ontario part's rate has averaged 2.9% over ten years and peaked at 7.7% in June 2022.

Across geographies

The Ontario part's rate minus Canada's is -0.1 percentage points.

What it influences

Inflation bears on wage bargaining, the policy rate and mortgage renewals; those links are national and not measured for the city.

Risks

The risks that published sources attribute to Ottawa–Gatineau specifically are in the local-economy section of this page; the national risks are energy prices and tariffs (see the Canada report).

What to watch

Statistics Canada's monthly Consumer Price Index release (calendar).

What happened

The Ottawa–Gatineau metropolitan area had 1.7 million residents on July 1, 2025, a change of 2.3% from a year earlier. Over five years it changed 11.5%, against 20.1% in Calgary and 9.5% in Toronto. In the latest year the rates were 2.9% in Calgary, 3.1% in Edmonton, 0.0% in Toronto and 0.2% in Vancouver.

Why it happened

This is the provincial and national explanation; the metropolitan population estimates end in July 2025, before the 2026 decline, so they cannot show it. The components of the metropolitan change are shown below.

In the demographic year that began in July 2024, the Ottawa–Gatineau metropolitan area recorded 15 thousand births and 12 thousand deaths, 26 thousand immigrants, a net change of 2,922 non-permanent residents, net interprovincial migration of 3,531 and net intraprovincial migration (movement to and from the rest of the province) of 4,660. The year before, immigrants numbered 23 thousand and the net change in non-permanent residents was 22 thousand. Net non-permanent residents averaged 7,925 a year over the latest five demographic years.

Why it matters

Population growth adds workers and households, which can add to demand for housing and services.

History

Over ten years the population changed 22.6%.

Across geographies

Ontario's population changed 0.3% over the four quarters to 1 July 2026, against 1.5% in Alberta; Ontario's net change in non-permanent residents over four quarters was -86 thousand. These are provincial figures.

What it influences

Risks

Not assessed: the effect of the federal immigration levels plan on Ottawa–Gatineau specifically.

What to watch

Statistics Canada's quarterly provincial and annual metropolitan population estimates and the federal levels plan.

What happened

Ottawa–Gatineau started 14,228 homes over the past twelve months and completed 13,319. At the end of September 2026, 21,758 were under construction, 4.1% against a year earlier (Toronto 88,108, Vancouver 61,680, Calgary 26,252).

The New Housing Price Index for the Ontario part of Ottawa–Gatineau is 162.3, 1.0% on a year ago and -2.9% since February 2022. Vancouver's index changed -2.1% over the year and Toronto's -4.9%. Index levels are not comparable across cities because each is indexed to its own base. The Ottawa–Gatineau index covers the Ontario part only.

In the October 2025 Rental Market Survey the average rent for a two-bedroom unit in purpose-built rental structures of three or more units in Ottawa–Gatineau was C$1,757 a month, 4.3% higher than a year earlier (CMHC's same-sample figures, for structures surveyed in both years, are 3.4% for Ottawa and 4.7% for Gatineau) and 33.6% higher than five years earlier, ranking 6th of 14 among fourteen cities (highest = 1); the same measure was C$1,908 in Calgary, C$2,045 in Toronto, C$2,364 in Vancouver. The vacancy rate was 3.1%, from 2.3% a year earlier (against 3.1% in Saskatoon, 4.9% in Calgary, 3.0% in Toronto, 3.7% in Vancouver). The table covers purpose-built rental structures only; condominium, house and basement-suite rentals, and the asking rents on new listings, are not in it.

Why it happened

The data show how much is being built and what is happening to new-home prices; they do not separate demand, land and construction costs, interest rates and incomes.

Why it matters

Housing is a large household expense. A supply gap estimate is CMHC's model-based figure, not a forecast of what will be built.

History

The monthly peak of units under construction in the past ten years was 21,805 in October 2023.

Across geographies

On the six-city comparison, over the twelve months to September 2026 units under construction changed 4.1% in Ottawa–Gatineau, -4.2% in Toronto, -2.3% in Vancouver and 4.0% in Edmonton. The gap estimates in CMHC's summary table differ widely: Toronto 20,000 to 26,000 units a year, Vancouver 5,000 to 7,000, Montréal 42,000 to 56,000, Ottawa 22,000 to 27,000, Calgary 4,000 to 5,000.

What it influences

The Bank of Canada describes a link between mortgage costs and housing, and CMHC a link between supply and affordability; neither is estimated for Ottawa–Gatineau.

Risks

What to watch

CMHC's monthly starts, Statistics Canada's New Housing Price Index (release dates in the calendar), and the Bank of Canada's next announcement on 9 December 2026.

What happened

Ottawa–Gatineau manufacturing shipments were C$682 million in August 2026, 1.9% against a year earlier and 10.9% against December 2019, compared with 11.6% over the year in Toronto, 21.2% in Vancouver and 46.6% in Edmonton. Petroleum and coal product manufacturing was 1.8% of the Ottawa–Gatineau total.

Why it happened

Why it matters

Annual employment in public administration for the metropolitan area is in the labour section: 22.1% of employment in 2025. No technology employment series is held, so that part of the economy is not measured here.

History

Ottawa–Gatineau's manufacturing shipments peaked at C$932 million in March 2023 over the past ten years.

Across geographies

As provincial context only: Ontario's workers are employed 5.7% in public administration and Quebec's 6.3% (shares of provincial employment, 2025). The capital region spans both provinces, and these provincial shares must not be read as describing Ottawa–Gatineau.

What it influences

Manufacturing and construction activity feed local employment and incomes. The explorer records documented exposures for provinces and an observed association between exports to the United States and manufacturing sales; none is a measured effect on Ottawa–Gatineau.

Risks

What to watch

Statistics Canada's monthly manufacturing survey and merchandise trade releases (calendar).

What happened

In the 2021 Census, 661 thousand jobs were located in the Ottawa–Gatineau metropolitan area (people who worked at home or had a usual workplace there; people with no fixed workplace address are not in the table). The three largest sectors were Public administration (25.7% of jobs), Health care and social assistance (12.9%) and Professional, scientific and technical services (10.7%). The Ottawa–Gatineau metropolitan area spans Ontario and Quebec; this table counts the whole of it, unlike the output section, which covers the Ontario part only.

Measured as its share of jobs divided by the other five metropolitan areas' combined share (among sectors that make up at least one fiftieth of Ottawa–Gatineau's jobs), the sector in which Ottawa–Gatineau stood furthest above the rest was Public administration: 25.7% of its jobs, against 4.2% in Calgary, 8.2% in Edmonton, 4.6% in Toronto, 4.9% in Vancouver and 5.3% in Montréal.

Why it happened

Not assessed. The table counts jobs by sector at one date and says nothing about why a metropolitan area has the mix it has. Attributed descriptions of Ottawa–Gatineau's industry structure are in the local-economy section of this page.

Why it matters

The industry mix shows what a local economy does for a living, which bears on how it is exposed to changes in demand, prices and policy. It does not measure output, wages or how the economy is performing; those need other tables.

History

Not available from this table: the Census is taken every five years and the platform holds only the 2021 reference week (May 2021). Annual industry employment for the metropolitan area comes from the Labour Force Survey and is in the labour section of this page.

Across geographies

The six metropolitan areas come from one table with one definition, so the shares can be compared with one another. They are shares of jobs located in the area, not of residents' employment, and not comparable with provincial Labour Force Survey industry shares, which use a different survey, year and definition. Ontario and Quebec are not described here.

What it influences

Not assessed. No relationship in the recorded graph links the metropolitan industry mix to another variable.

Risks

What to watch

The release of 2026 Census results on industry for metropolitan areas. No release date for them is in the calendar this site holds, and none is assumed.

What happened

The recorded connections that reach Ottawa–Gatineau are provincial or national. Ontario's exposure to the United States was 72% of its goods exports in 2025; the national export shares that year were 72% to the United States and 4.5% to China.

Oil prices and metropolitan employment are compared in the relationship graph only for Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto, with correlations of 0.37, 0.41 and 0.37. Ottawa–Gatineau is not compared.

Why it happened

Not assessed. Trade and investment links that published sources describe for Ottawa–Gatineau are in the local-economy section of this page; no city-level trade data are held.

Why it matters

The currency, interest rates and trade partners that matter for Ottawa–Gatineau are covered at national level in the Global report: one US dollar cost an average of C$1.4135 in October 2026; Canada's posted five-year mortgage rate was 6.19% in the week of 28 October 2026, and it rose 0.10 percentage points over the year to then. The US ten-year Treasury yield was 4.84% on 5 November 2026 and Canada's ten-year yield 3.67% on 5 November 2026; how much of any move in either reaches Ottawa–Gatineau's housing market is not measured here.

History

Not assessed.

Across geographies

What it influences

Three chains bear on Ottawa–Gatineau, each national or provincial: US trade measures to exports (hypotheses nationally, with sourced provincial statements), rates to mortgage costs and housing (documented nationally) and immigration policy to population (documented nationally).

Risks

The risks that published sources attribute to this city specifically are in the local-economy section of this page; beyond those, see the national risks in the Canada report and the global risks in the Global report.

What to watch

The Bank of Canada's next announcement on 9 December 2026, tariff changes and Statistics Canada's monthly trade release (calendar).