Population of Brampton surpasses Mississauga for the first time

For the first time since they have become cities, Brampton’s population has surpassed that of Mississauga.

New data released by Statistics Canada on Thursday shows that as of 2024, Brampton’s population is 791,486 while Mississauga’s sits at 780,747.

The numbers mean that Brampton is now the third-largest city in Ontario, behind Toronto (3,273,119) and Ottawa (1,153,843).

Statistics Canada arrives at its findings through censuses, housing data and tax base information. Also known as StatsCan, the agency is the country’s official keeper of records and statistics.

The data show Brampton has increasingly been gaining ground on Mississauga, especially in the past eight years when the numbers started to climb due to high levels of immigrants settling in the area.

Significantly, the population has exploded in the past two years with a growth of almost 100,000 people that has been fueled by federal government programs that encouraged temporary foreign students and temporary foreign workers, many of whom now live in Brampton.

As well, the city has fostered an aggressive building agenda of high-density condos and apartments as well as single-family homes.

Historically, Brampton has been a self-contained community much longer than Mississauga but when both became cities in 1974 Mississauga’s population had grown significantly making it Peel Region’s largest.

Since then Brampton has lagged … until now.

“We always knew it but we were just waiting for the stats to prove it,” commented Brampton Wards 1 & 5 Coun. Rowena Santos on social media when informed of the numbers.

She added that with the news she hopes Brampton can catch up to other cities in terms of federal and provincial funding for services like health care, safety, social services, and transit.