Summary

• Over the past several years, the Fraser Institute’s Ontario Prosperity Initiative has published several studies analyzing economic developments across various reasons of Ontario.
• This bulletin examines trends surrounding median household income in large metropolitan areas across Canada, with a particular focus on Census Metropolitan Areas in southwestern Ontario.
• The two large CMAs in southwest Ontario that are outside of the Toronto commuter area, London and Windsor, were amongst the worst performers on this important measure of well-being between 2005 and 2019.
• Since the turn of the century, southwestern Ontario has gone from being one of the most prosperous regions in Canada to being in the bottom third on median household income.
• Over this span Windsor went from having the 11th highest median household income in Canada to having the 33rd highest. London fell from 13th to 28th place.
• The region’s economic struggles began prior to the 2008-09 recession and following that severe economic shock its recovery was tepid.