Fast Facts About Waterloo Region

• In the 2006 Census, Waterloo Region had 478,121 residents.
• Post-secondary students number about 55,000, including 8,500 full-time and 4,000 apprenticeship students at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, 30,000 at the University of Waterloo and 12,400 at Wilfrid Laurier University.
• Among the region's major employers are Sun Life Financial, Manulife Financial, Toyota Motor Manufacturing , Automation Tooling Systems (ATA), Babcock & Wilcox and Research in Motion.
• More than 400 high-tech firms operate in Waterloo Region. In addition to RIM, the list includes Descartes Systems, Open Text, Maplesoft, Dalsa, MKS and more.
• On the Ontario Cost of Living Index, with Toronto at 100 as the baseline, Waterloo Region is 73.8.
• The average home price in Kitchener-Waterloo in 2007 was $252,429. In Cambridge the average was $242,752.
• More than 80 per cent of workers live less than 30 minutes from their workplace.
• Some 42 per cent of commuters travel less than five kilometres to work; 9.2 per cent travel more than 25 kilometres.