10 places in Canada considered to be as remote as Charlottetown

Charlottetown is a capital city, a small town by many measures, but still the largest community within a two-hour drive. 

So how remote does that make it?

Statistics Canada has developed a formula to measure that. Measuring remoteness is important, the agency says, because proximity to large population centres and the services they provide is an important determinant of socio-economic opportunities and health.

Using 2021 census data, the agency created a list of more than 5,000 communities in Canada, giving them a ranking from zero to one. The higher the rank, the more remote the community.

Toronto rates a zero. Resolute, Nunavut, at the other end of the spectrum, earns a 0.9838991336.

Charlottetown is about a third of the way along this spectrum, at 0.313214282. That measure reflects its own size, about 39,000 people, and proximity to other centres such as Moncton (RI: 0.2618748922), an hour and 55 minutes away, and Halifax (RI: 0.1993827948), three-and-a-half hours away.

Here are the 10 cities closest to Charlottetown on the remoteness index. Coincidentally, they are all slightly more remote.

Pictou, N.S. (Remoteness index: 0.3132585902)

Islanders are familiar with Pictou, the community closest to Charlottetown on the remoteness index. On Nova Scotia’s north shore, it is closer to P.E.I. than any other town.

With a population of a little more than 3,000, it is a population centre in its own right in Pictou County. Its position an hour and 45 minutes from Halifax…