Geographies of studentification in mid‐sized Canadian metropolitan areas

Abstract

Amid Canada's housing crisis, near‐campus neighbourhoods are undergoing “studentification”—the conversion of existing housing into shared student rentals—yet its extent remains unquantified due to the lack of student identifiers in census data. We introduce a novel indirect research method leveraging a Statistics Canada classification anomaly: dwellings wholly occupied by domestic postsecondary students are recorded as “unoccupied” in census counts. Applying this metric to 2006 and 2016 census tract and dissemination area data across 11 Ontario mid‐sized census metropolitan areas, we mapped the spatial geography of studentification, corroborated through planning records and local field observations. We observed pronounced studentification in proximity to universities in Waterloo, London, Guelph, Hamilton, and Kingston, where dissemination‐area mapping revealed fine‐grained patterns of conversion affecting low‐income neighbourhoods. Analysis of 2021 Census data was compromised by COVID‐19‐induced housing shifts and a surge in international enrolments, which undercount “unoccupied” student units. The method is most effective in mid‐sized cities dominated by domestic undergraduates but does not count international students. It offers a replicable tool for policymakers to estimate the impact of domestic studentification on affordable rental supply.