Chillin’ on a hot summer day (with air conditioning)

Canada is much more famous for its cold winters than hot summers, but heat waves do occur in the Great White North, and they can be deadly. To beat the heat, three in five Canadian households reported having some type of air conditioner in 2019.

Heat can be deadly

Summers are short in Canada, but we do get extreme heat events. In 2021, 595 people died in British Columbia as a result of one of the longest and hottest heat waves in Canadian history. In 2010, a heat wave in Quebec claimed the lives of 280 people.

Three in five Canadian households beat the heat with air conditioning

Approximately three in five Canadian households reported owning an air conditioner in 2019, with 42% of all Canadian households reporting owning a central air conditioner, 17% a stand-alone air conditioner and 3% another type of air conditioner.

Households in Manitoba and Ontario are most likely to have an air conditioner

Over four in five households in Manitoba (85%) and Ontario (82%) reported having some type of air conditioner in 2019, the highest rates nationally. Less than one in five households in Newfoundland and Labrador (18%) reported having air conditioning, the lowest rate nationally.

Central air conditioning was most prevalent in Manitoba and Ontario, with approximately two-thirds of households reporting this type of air conditioning.

Stand-alone air conditioners were most common in Quebec and New Brunswick, with approximately one in four households reporting using one.

Almost every household in Windsor reports having some type of air conditioning

Perhaps not surprisingly, households in Canada’s southernmost city are most likely to have some type of air conditioner, with 97% of households in Windsor reporting owning one in 2019. Overall, Nine in ten households in London, Oshawa, Guelph and Winnipeg also reported having some type of air conditioning.

Conversely, approximately one in five households in the coastal cities of St. John’s and Victoria reported having air conditioning in 2019, the lowest rates among Canadian cities.