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In Canada, Out Of 1,000 Homes: How Many Rely On Groundwater?

In Canada, groundwater is a major household water source, but it is not the default one. Statistics Canada's 2023 Households and the Environment Survey found that 9% of households reported a private well as their dwelling's main source of water. In a 1,000-home Canada model, that works out to about 90 homes relying directly on groundwater and about 910 using other main sources.

Environment 2026-03-28

In Canada, Out Of 1,000 Homes: How Many Rely On Groundwater?

A Canada-specific 1,000-home view of how many households rely on private-well groundwater as their main water source.

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One In Eleven Canadian Homes Lives Closer To The Aquifer

This matters because homes on private wells have a different relationship to water than homes on public systems. A groundwater household is not just using a different pipe. It often means the household is responsible for testing, maintenance, contamination awareness, and drought resilience at the property level. Nationally that is a minority of homes, but it is still a large group, and in some provinces the share is far higher than the Canada-wide average. Canada is known for having vast volumes of fresh water but many Canadians outside of this group may not think about its importance as often as they should.

The National Share Is Stable, But The Risks Around Wells Can Intensify

Canada is unlikely to stop being a country with a large private-well population, especially in rural areas and in provinces like Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia where private wells are much more common. What can change is the safety and reliability of that groundwater. Flooding, drought, nearby land use, septic problems, and contamination events can all make well dependence more difficult to manage. The outlook improves when aquifers are protected, wells are maintained, and households test regularly instead of treating groundwater as automatically safe.

Private well groundwater: 90 out of 1,000

Raw count: about 1.35 million occupied private dwellings when the 2023 survey share is applied to Canada's 2021 total of 14,978,940 occupied private dwellings. Permille: 90 per 1,000. Category membership: Households in the 10 provinces that reported a private well as their dwelling's main source of water in the Households and the Environment Survey. This excludes municipal customers whose local utility may still draw from groundwater. Significance: These are the homes with the most direct day-to-day dependence on groundwater quality, well integrity, and local aquifer conditions.

Other main sources: 910 out of 1,000

Raw count: about 13.63 million occupied private dwellings using the same 2021 dwelling base and the remaining 91% share. Permille: 910 per 1,000. Category membership: Mostly municipally supplied homes, plus a very small residual of non-municipal surface or other sources that disappear into percent rounding at the national scale. Significance: Most Canadian homes are supplied by public systems and the homeowners may not think too much about where their water comes from, but that does not mean groundwater is irrelevant to them. Many municipal systems still depend on protected source water, treatment, and infrastructure quality to keep household taps safe.

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