Understanding the Early Years - Results of the Community Mapping Study in North York - May 2001

2. The North York Community

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Many competing theories exist in the literature to explain how and why communities have an influence on children's development. Some focus on the physical environment in which children grow, others on the social environment and the interactions among community's residents, while still others examine the role of community programs and services. This report examines the social, physical and resource environment of North York with respect to early childhood development.

Since this research began, the city of North York has been incorporated into the new City of Toronto as the North Quadrant. However, for the purposes of this report, the term "North York" will continue to be used. The North York community covers a large, urban area of approximately 176.49 square kilometres. It is bordered to the north by Steeles Avenue; to the east by Victoria Park; the west, past the Highway 400; and in the south, approximate boundaries would stretch south of Lawrence Avenue. The Highway 401 runs through the middle of the city. Its total population in 1996 was 589,653; with 53,420 children aged six and younger (comprising 9.1% of the population).

Map 1 - Where did the children live?

This map displays the distribution of children aged six and younger across the community; each dot represents 10 children.

Defining the community in which children live

The terms "place," "neighborhood" and "community" are often used interchangeably to refer to related, but different concepts. As a geographical entity, "place" is often defined by political, administrative or other physical boundaries. The concepts of neighbourhood and community incorporate aspects of psychology and sociology together with geography, and may be defined by the social interactions and functions that occur in a particular place in addition to its actual location. Although there are numerous ways of defining neighbourhoods and communities, for the purposes of this report, neighbourhoods will be defined and referred to using the geographical boundaries of Enumeration Areas (EAs), while the terms "community" and "city" will apply interchangeably to North York as a whole. An EA (in this report, a neighbourhood) is the smallest standard geographic area for which census data are reported. There are 795 EAs in North York. Groups of EAs are known are Census tracts; there are 111 Census Tracts in North York.

• The number of children appeared to be distributed across all parts of the city of North York, with particular areas where the concentration of children was quite high.
• Parks and green spaces were often located near areas with high numbers of children.
• Children were particularly concentrated in neighbourhoods along Jane Street and in the southeastern corner of the city.

Map 2 - How were green space and industries distributed in North York?

North York is a mainly residential community, with several large industrial zones, particularly in the north west region. Green space, parks, play and recreational areas are prevalent, mostly in the north west region and the eastern part of the community.

Map 3 - Which areas had the highest proportion of families with children?

There were approximately 107,930 families with children in North York, and of the total number of households, 51%² were families with children.

• Almost 25% of neighbourhoods contained over 200 families with children.
• The number of households that were comprised of families with children was evenly distributed on the western and eastern sides of the community.

• ² Many of the numbers have been rounded throughout the report.

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