How suburban ways of living are shaping the geography of income in Canadian cities

The traditional view of North American suburbs is that they are populated by those on relatively high incomes who own their single-family home. Mark Williamson and Robert Walter-Joseph report on a new study which challenges the established view of where suburban life is located. They write that by studying all of Canada’s 26 major metropolitan areas, researchers found many central city neighborhoods which exhibited high proportions of suburban-style living, as well as peripheral areas that had more urban characteristics. They write that ‘suburbanism’ is as much about where income is concentrated as it is about aspects of the built form. It is not solely about being outside a city center.