Officially Toronto dropped 16 of its old neighborhoods but added 36 of new ones. Since the late 1990s there have been 140 districts. In recent years population growth made most of those regions unbalanced in relation to others. “To balance population growth, the Social Research & Information Management unit (SRIM), together with partners in other City divisions and public agencies, developed neighbourhood splits that resulted in 34 new neighbourhood areas with more balanced populations”, the City’s website reads. 

Most of the new neighbourhoods were already used by Torontonians. The City just made the boundaries official. For example, Waterfront Communities were dropped into smaller parts.

New Neighbourhood Facts:

• Social Planning Neighbourhoods are Increasing from 140 to 158 in Number

• 16 old neighbourhoods are replaced with 34 new ones. The rest stay the same

• Old neighbourhood numbers (like 131 and 137) are retired; new numbers starting at 141 and going up to 174 are introduced

• There are now 158 neighbourhoods numbered from 1 to 174

• Outer boundaries of neighbourhoods stay the same; only internal lines are made for new neighbourhoods. This allows old neighbourhoods to be compared to new neighbourhoods

• Two Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs) have been split: Woburn 137 (now Woburn North 142 and Golfdale-Woburn) and Downsview-Roding-CFB (now called Downsview and Oakdale-Beverley Heights)

• Neighbourhood splits follow Statistics Canada’s census tract geography for maximum compatibility with existing datasets

• The new 158 neighbourhoods will be publicly announced in early 2021.