With Canada's abundance of surface freshwater it
is not surprising that outdoor swimming is a popular summer activity.
Millions of Canadians enjoy swimming in freshwater rivers, ponds
and lakes. Many municipalities operate beaches for local residents.
Many other people swim in some of the clear lakes of the Canadian
Shield. Beaches and swimming are also commonly found in Canada's
parks. There is also a great deal of indoor swimming throughout
Canada, although this was not measured for this survey, nor is it
mapped here.
On a per capita basis, however, there is a remarkable similarity
in participation rates across Canada as measured by visits per person.
Other than very low values for the Arctic and Mississippi drainage
areas (2.9 and 4.5 visits per person, respectively), all values
range from 12.6 to 17.9, with the highest value being for the area
representing northern Quebec.
The source of the data is the survey carried out in 1997. In that
year, Statistics Canada conducted a survey on behalf of a nationwide
partnership of 16 federal, provincial and territorial agencies interested
in nature-related activies. The Survey on the Importance of
Nature to Canadians asked 87 000 Canadians 15 years and over
about relevant activities in 1996.
In addition to having detailed information on participation in
swimming, the survey also asked about concerns and found that Canadians
worry about pollution of outdoor swimming areas.
Figure 1 shows a summary of data for outdoor swimming by province
or territory from the survey.
[D] Click for larger version, 10 KB Figure 1. Participation in Swimming by Canadians, 1996
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