Not the full picture. Built from public records, which leave things out.Older reportDetails

This is built from public records, which leave a lot out, and some of it may be wrong or out of date. Check the sources, and tell us if you spot a mistake. What this site can't tell you
An older report. We have no 2024 report for Amaranth in the Province's latest release, so these pages use its 2023 report. It may simply be filed late.
Read by hand. We read Amaranth's own documents for this site in October 2026; the Sources page lists which ones. The comparisons with other places still come from the Province's yearly reports.

Compare · 2023

How Amaranth compares with similar towns

Is Amaranth spending a lot or a little? The fairest way to tell is to compare it with towns like it. We picked every Ontario town of the same type (Ontario lower-tier municipalities with 60% to 160% of this population that had filed their 2023 return): 54 towns with between 2,608 and 6,913 people.

How to read this. Each grey dot is one similar town. The large dot is Amaranth, and the line marked "typical" is the town in the middle. The label and colour say where Amaranth sits:

▼ Very low: lower than 90% of similar towns
▼ Low: lower than 75%
≈ Typical: in the middle half
▲ High: higher than 75%
▲ Very high: higher than 90%
Warning mark: unusual in a worrying way for this measure, like very low savings or a very high tax increase

Being far from the middle is not wrong by itself, but it is where to start asking why.

One thing to keep in mind: "per home" uses the number of households each town reports to the Province. Some towns count seasonal cottages as households and some do not, so comparisons with lake and cottage towns are rougher than they look.

Similar towns in Southwestern Ontario include East Garafraxa, Grand Valley, Mulmur, Melancthon, Perth South, Southwold, Dutton-Dunwich, West Elgin.

Spending per home

What the town spends on each service, divided by the number of homes. This makes big and small towns comparable.

Total day-to-day spending

Everything the town spent in a year, divided by the number of homes.

$3,814Higher than 35 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $3,023

typical

Town property tax

The town's own share of property tax, divided by the number of homes.

$3,309Higher than 46 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $2,314

typical

Running the town office

Council, managers, office staff and the town hall, per home.

$800Higher than 48 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $513

typical

Council

Council pay, expenses and meetings, per home.

$99Higher than 46 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $61

typical

Roads and snow

Per home. Towns with many kilometres of rural road spend more.

$1,493Higher than 51 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $895

typical

Snow ploughing

Per home.

$0Lower than 48 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $86

typical

Police, fire and safety

Per home.

$834Higher than 43 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $619

typical

Fire department

Per home.

$409Higher than 51 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $213

typical

Police

Per home. Most small Ontario towns pay the OPP under the same province-wide formula.

$340Higher than 32 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $324

typical

Water, sewers and garbage

Per home.

$264Lower than 34 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $380

typical

Garbage, dump and recycling

Per home.

$1Lower than 44 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $195

typical

Parks, arena and library

Per home.

$248Lower than 36 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $352

typical

Planning and business

Per home.

$168Higher than 40 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $95

typical

Money health

Signs of whether the town is living within its means.

Savings compared with spending

Savings, as a share of one year's spending.

48%Lower than 42 of 54 similar towns. Typical: 85%

typical

Savings (reserves)

Money set aside for repairs and emergencies, per home. More is safer.

$1,814Lower than 38 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $2,370

typical

Long-term debt

What the town still owes on long-term loans, per home.

$587Higher than 31 of 54 similar towns. Typical: $337

typical

Unpaid property taxes

Property taxes owed but not yet paid at year end, as a share of all taxes billed. The Province’s financial indicators treat 10% to 15% as a moderate risk and more than 15% as high.

13%Higher than 49 of 54 similar towns. Typical: 8%

typical

Share spent running the office

Out of every dollar spent, how much goes to running the town office.

21%Higher than 41 of 54 similar towns. Typical: 17%

typical

How worn out things are

How much of the value of roads, pipes and buildings has already been used up. Higher means older.

51%Higher than 35 of 54 similar towns. Typical: 45%

typical

How fast costs are growing

Growth over five years (2018 to 2023), and the latest one-year change in property tax.

Property tax increase, last year

How much more the town collected in its own property tax than the year before.

9%Higher than 40 of 54 similar towns. Typical: 6%

typical

Source: Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 2023, all 55 municipalities (archived copy). Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Retrieved 2026-10-01. Figures are what the municipality reported to the Province for each year, prepared on the same basis as its audited financial statements.

Towns sort costs into categories a little differently, and some share services with neighbours, so small gaps mean little. Big gaps are worth a question.