Not the full picture. Built from public records, which leave things out.Read by hand, Oct 2026Details

This is built from public records, which leave a lot out, and some of it may be wrong or out of date.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
Read by hand. We read Clarington'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 · 2025

How Clarington compares with similar towns

Is Clarington 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 2025 return): 9 towns with between 62,057 and 154,900 people.

How to read this. Each grey dot is one similar town. The large dot is Clarington, and the line marked "typical" is the town in the middle. The label and colour say where Clarington 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 Central Ontario include Pickering, Ajax, Aurora, Newmarket, Caledon, Halton Hills.

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.

$3,032Lower than 9 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $3,955

typical

Town property tax

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

$2,309Lower than 7 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $2,807

typical

Running the town office

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

$627Lower than 7 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $869

typical

Council

Council pay, expenses and meetings, per home.

$74Higher than 7 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $58

typical

Roads and snow

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

$609Higher than 7 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $490

typical

Snow ploughing

Per home.

$156Higher than 8 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $92

typical

Police, fire and safety

Per home.

$591Lower than 9 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $807

typical

Fire department

Per home.

$468Lower than 9 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $574

typical

Police

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

$0Lower than 2 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $0

typical

Water, sewers and garbage

Per home.

$57Lower than 5 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $939

typical

Garbage, dump and recycling

Per home.

$0Lower than 4 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $0

typical

Parks, arena and library

Per home.

$920Lower than 5 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $959

typical

Planning and business

Per home.

$206Higher than 6 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $175

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.

58%Lower than 7 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 82%

typical

Savings (reserves)

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

$1,751Lower than 7 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $3,233

typical

Long-term debt

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

$3,394Higher than 9 of 9 similar towns. Typical: $753

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.

9%Higher than 5 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 9%

typical

Share spent running the office

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

21%Lower than 5 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 22%

typical

How worn out things are

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

47%Higher than 8 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 41%

typical

How fast costs are growing

Growth over five years (2020 to 2025), 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.

6%Higher than 5 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 6%

typical

Property tax growth, 5 years

How much the town's own property tax grew over five years.

28%Lower than 6 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 34%

typical

Spending growth, 5 years

How much day-to-day spending grew over five years.

58%Higher than 7 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 50%

typical

Office cost growth, 5 years

How much the cost of running the town office grew over five years.

52%Lower than 6 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 64%

typical

Council cost growth, 5 years

How much council costs grew over five years.

46%Higher than 6 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 32%

typical

Parks and arena cost growth, 5 years

How much parks, arena and library costs grew over five years.

93%Higher than 8 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 78%

typical

Roads cost growth, 5 years

How much road and snow costs grew over five years.

37%Lower than 8 of 9 similar towns. Typical: 54%

typical

Source: Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 2025, all 10 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.