Building permits
2025 permit value per resident: 25 cities placed on municipal csd totals
Burnaby leads the 2025 per-resident permit study at about $12,400 per person. Twenty-five cities use verified municipal totals divided by Census 2021 population on OpenStats city records.
· OpenStats data desk · Editorial standards
City Score snapshot
Source: OpenStats composite edition 2025 (apps/hub/src/data/rankings/)
Why it matters
Desk pieces translate a fresh ranking or pulse into what changed and who it affects.
What's measured
This report draws on OpenStats tables cited in the body — section: Building permits.
How to read the rank
Open the related ranking or atlas for the live sortable table; figures here are editorial context, not the primary data view.
Permit value study leaders (2025)
Source: Statistics Canada building permits; OpenStats permit-value study
Composite standing distribution
Source: OpenStats composite edition 2025 (apps/hub/src/data/rankings/)
The 2025 OpenStats building permit value study ranks calendar-year municipal permit value per resident for hometowns with a verified census-subdivision permit total. After the October 2026 corpus refresh, 25 of 343 cities carry a placed row sourced from city open-data feeds and published building or financial reports. Cities without a verified municipal series keep median construction standing on City Score until ingest adds a CSD row.
Municipal totals and population
Each placed city divides its verified calendar-year permit dollars by the population field on the OpenStats city record (Statistics Canada Census 2021). The study ranks higher per-resident values at rank 1. Hometown pages link to the primary source URL and year for the permit total.
| City | 2025 permit total (CAD) | Per resident (approx.) | Study rank (of 25) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burnaby | $3.1B (annual municipal report) | $12,400 | 1 |
| Markham | $3.8B (MPMP results) | $11,100 | 2 |
| Red Deer | $1.06B (city year-end) | $10,500 | 3 |
| Oakville | $2.12B (December permit report) | $9,900 | 4 |
| Barrie | $1.02B (December building report) | $4,800 | 8 |
Toronto and Calgary still post the largest municipal permit totals in dollars, but their larger populations place them mid-table on per-resident standing. See the full leaderboard on the study edition page.
Construction Pulse
Construction Pulse tracks municipal permit periods on the permits atlas. City Score construction standing comes from this per-resident study edition when a city is placed.
Where to read next
Full 2025 table: OpenStats building permit value per resident (2025). Methods: methodology. Toronto and Calgary hometown pages show construction pillar ranks from the study. Atlas: permits.openstats.ca.
Methods and sources
Series openstats-permit-value; metric is permit dollars per resident at data_grain csd with Census 2021 population on each city record. Ingest audit: data/audit/municipal-building-permits-ingest.json.