Fun with the census: coffee shops, pho joints, library branches and more

Photo by Gamma-Ray Productions on Flickr

Fun with the census: coffee shops, pho joints, library branches and more

Posted by Trevor Pritchard on Wednesday, February 8, 2012

In their story on the census, Ottawa Citizen data journalist Glen McGregor and reporter Chloé Fedio observed that if the lines at Bridgehead seem longer, it's probably because the Ottawa region has grown by 9.1 percent over the past five years.

Well, based on today's census numbers, you're sharing whichever of the city's 14 Bridgehead coffee shops you frequent with 63,098 other Ottawans. And if my Monday morning experience downtown is any indication, I have seen all of those people in line at once.

Using the census numbers for the city proper—which, despite what some might have you believe, show we number 883,391 citizens—we looked at how many Ottawans share 15 local amenities, from Royal Oaks and toboggan hills to city-run daycares and library branches.

Food and drink

There's one Bridgehead coffee shop for every 63,099 Ottawans.
There's one Tim Hortons for every 7,615 Ottawans.
There's one venue serving Beau's beer for every 7,124 Ottawans.
There's one Vietnamese restaurant for every 14,248 Ottawans.
There's one Royal Oak pub for every 67,953 Ottawans.

Sources: Bridgehead, Royal Oak, Beau's, OttawaFoodies.com, and QMI Agency

City services

There's one OC Transpo employee for every 307 Ottawans.
There's one kilometre of bike lane, paved road shoulder, or multi-use pathway for every 1,290 Ottawans.
There's one library branch for every 26,769 Ottawans.
There's one city-run day care for every 51,964 Ottawans.
There's one community police centre for every 58,893 Ottawans.

Sources: The City of Ottawa, OC Transpo 2010 statistics, the Ottawa Police Services Board

Out and about

There's one tennis court for every 3,272 Ottawans.
There's one city-or-NCC-run tobogganing hill for every 15,498 Ottawans.
There's one museum or historical site for every 33,977 Ottawans.
There's one movie theatre for every 63,099 Ottawans.
There's one bowling alley for every 126,199 Ottawans.

Sources: City of Ottawa, CinemaClock.com, various websites

All numbers are as accurate as we could make them. If a Tim Hortons location closed and we didn't catch it, please don't alert the data journalism police (of which there is one officer for every 34,203 data journalists, according to census figures we just invented).

Photos by Gamma-Ray Productions, greencolander, the bbp, and ActiveSteve on Flickr.