# This is how many more people Toronto could house if it increased its population density

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2023-12-16

barcelona, buenos-aires, density, economics, housing, infill-housing, new-york-city, osaka, paris, population-density, sao-paulo, seoul, singapore, toronto, urban-planning, urbanism, wikipedia

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As a follow-up to [yesterday's post](https://brandondonnelly.com/2023/12/15/were-far-from-full/) about infill housing and overall urban densities, let's look at some basic math.

The City of Toronto has an estimated population of 3,025,647 (as of June 2023) and a land area of 630 square meters. That means that its average population density is about 4,803 people per km2. Obviously this number will be higher in some locations, and lower in others. But overall, this is the average.

Now let's consider how many people we could actually fit within the existing boundaries of the city (city proper not the metro area) if we were to simply match the average population densities of some other global cities around the world.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/d740f4065f648547a611822353cfca29.png)

Again, what this chart is saying is that if we took the same physical area (Toronto's 630 square meters) and just increased the population density to that of, say, Paris, we would then have a total population of over 13 million people and we'd be housing an additional 10,011,573 humans on the same footprint.

I am not suggesting that this is _exactly_ what should be done. (Though, you all know how much I love Paris.) What I'm suggesting is that calling a place "full" isn't exactly accurate. How would you even measure that? What someone is really saying is that they are content with the status quo in terms of built form and density.

_Note: The above population densities were all_ [_taken from Wikipedia_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities)_, except for Toronto's figures, which were_ [_taken from here_](https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/toronto-at-a-glance/)_._

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/this-is-how-many-more-people-toronto-could-house-if-it-increased-its-population-density)*