Comparing Canadian Density to the Rest of the World

The Fraser Institute has released a new report [pdf] comparing the density of Canadian cities to cities around the world—finding that Canadian cities are far less dense than comparable cities around the world.

Josef Filipowicz writes a short blog post to summarize the findings of the report, including this bullet point:

Of the 30 cities analyzed, Canada’s largest have low population densities relative to international counterparts. The coastal tourist hubs of San Francisco and Barcelona are 1.31 and 2.89 times as dense as Vancouver, Canada’s densest major city. Chicago, New York, and London are 1.03, 2.45, and 2.48 times as dense as Canada’s financial and media centre, Toronto. Paris is 4.29 times as dense as Montreal, and even the Toronto suburb of Mississauga is 1.17 times as dense as Calgary, Canada’s third most populous municipality.

The findings of the report are used to build a case for more development to alleviate rising housing prices in Canadian cities. To promote the report and that argument, the Fraser Institute also created a snazzy and simple infographic that allows a direct comparison of densities of Canadian cities with other world-class Western cities.