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This is built from public records, which leave a lot out, and some of it may be wrong or out of date.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 Essex'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 Essex compares with similar towns

Is Essex 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): 29 towns with between 13,136 and 32,721 people.

How to read this. Each grey dot is one similar town. The large dot is Essex, and the line marked "typical" is the town in the middle. The label and colour say where Essex 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 Guelph-Eramosa, North Perth, Tillsonburg, Ingersoll, Kingsville, Amherstburg, LaSalle, St Clair.

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.

$4,339Higher than 20 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $3,711

typical

Town property tax

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

$2,612Higher than 15 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $2,612

typical

Running the town office

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

$709Higher than 20 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $556

typical

Council

Council pay, expenses and meetings, per home.

$93Higher than 23 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $50

typical

Roads and snow

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

$668Higher than 15 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $668

typical

Snow ploughing

Per home.

$155Higher than 23 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $114

typical

Police, fire and safety

Per home.

$775Higher than 16 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $755

typical

Fire department

Per home.

$216Lower than 23 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $285

typical

Police

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

$382Higher than 19 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $305

typical

Water, sewers and garbage

Per home.

$872Lower than 15 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $874

typical

Garbage, dump and recycling

Per home.

$279Higher than 28 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $124

typical

Parks, arena and library

Per home.

$968Higher than 24 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $703

typical

Planning and business

Per home.

$305Higher than 25 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $185

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.

288%Higher than 29 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 88%

typical

Savings (reserves)

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

$12,508Higher than 29 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $3,214

typical

Long-term debt

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

$2,214Higher than 19 of 29 similar towns. Typical: $1,212

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.

5%Lower than 28 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 7%

typical

Share spent running the office

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

16%Higher than 16 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 16%

typical

How worn out things are

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

40%Lower than 16 of 29 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%Lower than 21 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 7%

typical

Property tax growth, 5 years

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

27%Lower than 26 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 37%

typical

Spending growth, 5 years

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

32%Lower than 25 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 51%

typical

Office cost growth, 5 years

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

29%Lower than 23 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 54%

typical

Council cost growth, 5 years

How much council costs grew over five years.

−67%Lower than 28 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 37%

typical

Parks and arena cost growth, 5 years

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

74%Lower than 17 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 81%

typical

Roads cost growth, 5 years

How much road and snow costs grew over five years.

41%Higher than 17 of 29 similar towns. Typical: 39%

typical

Source: Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 2025, all 30 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.