Milton

Milton, in Halton Region west of Toronto, spent most of its history as a quiet mill town. Then, starting in the early 2000s, it became the fastest-growing municipality in Canada by a wide margin.

A 19th-century mill town

Founded as a mill town and farming community in the 1830s and named after English poet John Milton, the town was incorporated in 1857 and stayed a modest, small-town community for well over a century afterward.

The fastest population growth in the country

Between 2001 and 2011, Milton was officially Canada's fastest-growing municipality: its population jumped from 31,471 to 84,362 over that decade, including a 71.4% increase in just the first five years. Growth has continued at a rapid clip since — 132,979 residents by the 2021 census, up 20.7% from 2016 alone — driven by new-build suburban housing spilling west from Toronto along the same Highway 401 corridor covered in our 401 dictionary entry.

The Niagara Escarpment on its doorstep

Unlike most of the rapid-growth suburbs in this guide, Milton has a genuinely dramatic natural backdrop: Rattlesnake Point and Hilton Falls, both on the Niagara Escarpment — a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve — sit just outside town, giving Milton a hiking-and-conservation-area identity that its rapid suburban growth hasn't displaced.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Milton
• CHCH News — Milton Is the Fastest Growing Community in Canada
• Wikipedia — Milton, Ontario

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