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Chatham, Ontario

Chatham
Unincorporated community
Downtown Chatham First Presbyterian Church Kiwanis Theatre Kingston Park St. Joseph’s Church Chatham-Kent Civic Centre Bandshell at Tecumseh Park
Nickname:  The Maple City
Chatham Location of Chatham in Chatham-Kent Chatham Chatham (Southern Ontario)
Coordinates: 42°24′20.606″N 82°11′7.535″W
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Municipality	Chatham-Kent
Founded	1794
Incorporated	1895
Amalgamated	1998
Population  (2021)
• Total	45,171
• Density	1,447.4/km2 (3,749/sq mi)
Demonym	Chathamite
Time zone	UTC-5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
Postal codes	N7L, N7M
Area code(s)	519, 226, 548, 382

Chatham is an unincorporated community and the most populous settlement in the municipality of Chatham-Kent in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The current Municipality of Chatham-Kent was created in 1998 through the amalgamation of Chatham with all of its neighbouring municipalities in Kent County. It is recognized as a population centre by Statistics Canada.

Etymology

Chatham is named after William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. It was established as a naval dockyard town, a characteristic it shares with Chatham, Kent, England (CITATION NEEDED). The site of the original dockyard, at the confluence of the Thames River and McGregor's Creek, is reported to have been known as Auch-Kaw Mah'tah (roughly, "rippling forks") to local Indigenous peoples.

History

Indigenous History and Early Settlement

Long predating the arrival of Europeans, the lands now encompassing Chatham are and have been part of the traditional territories of various Indigenous peoples, including the Odawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Attawandaron, and by the time of the written treaties, the Lunaapeew.

Prior to European settlement, the site where Chatham is presently located is known to have been a popular gathering spot for local Indigenous communities. Several Indigenous villages are known to have been located in close proximity to modern Chatham, at least two along McGregor Creek.

The first Europeans to arrive in the region were likely French explorers and missionaries. Though the land was claimed as part of New France, no permanent settlements or forts were established here, the closest being Fort Detroit, founded in 1701. Following the Seven Years' War, the Treaty of Paris (1763) transferred France's North American territories to Britain. The American Revolution, which followed several years later, subsequently helped catalyze the first significant permanent European settlements in what would become Kent County (CITATION NEEDED).

Negotiations for the transfer of lands from Indigenous peoples to the British Crown in the region began around this time, starting with tracts of land south of the Detroit River in 1784 and in 1786 under Treaty 116. The signing of Treaty 2, or the McKee Purchase, on May 19, 1790, by representatives of the Crown and various First Nations formalized these previous agreements and saw the Crown acquire large swaths of land encompassing most of the southern tip of Ontario.

Black History

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20th Century

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Geography

Chatham chatham

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Chatham had a population of 45,171 living in 19,735 of its 20,559 total private dwellings, a change of 3.7 per cent from its 2016 population of 43,550. With a land area of 31.21 km² (12.05 sq mi), it had a population density of 1,447.4/km² (558.8/sq mi) in 2021.

Ethnicity

Approximately 85.6% of residents were European Canadians in 2021, whereas 8.21% were visible minorities and 3.96% were Indigenous. The largest visible minority groups in Chatham were Black (4.13%), South Asian (2.33%), Latin American (0.72%), Southeast Asian (0.70%), Chinese (0.52%), Arab (0.50%), and Filipino (0.42%).

Panethnic groups in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent (2001−2021)

Panethnic group	2021		2016		!2011!		!2006!		2001
	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
European	37,825	85.6%	37,770	89.47%	94,760	93.19%	99,860	93.56%	39,390	92.12%
Indigenous	1,750	3.96%	1,385	3.28%	2,910	2.86%	2,320	2.17%	600	1.4%
African	1,825	4.13%	1,410	3.34%	1,890	1.86%	2,190	2.05%	1,240	2.9%
South Asian	1,030	2.33%	500	1.18%	485	0.48%	610	0.57%	275	0.64%
Southeast Asian	495	1.12%	365	0.86%	485	0.48%	550	0.52%	260	0.61%
East Asian	375	0.85%	360	0.85%	560	0.55%	610	0.57%	560	1.31%
Latin American	320	0.72%	145	0.34%	350	0.34%	235	0.22%	115	0.27%
Middle Eastern	280	0.63%	150	0.36%	115	0.11%	175	0.16%	170	0.4%
Other	305	0.69%	140	0.33%	130	0.13%	175	0.16%	70	0.16%
Total responses	44,190	97.83%	42,215	96.93%	101,680	98.08%	106,735	98.67%	42,760	97.87%
Total population	45,171	100%	43,550	100%	103,671	100%	108,177	100%	43,690	100%

• Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.

Language

The most common mother tongue in 2021 was English; spoken by 87.7% of the population, followed by French (2.1%), Dutch (0.9%), Portuguese (0.7%), Polish (0.6%), Italian (0.6%), Vietnamese (0.4%), Spanish (0.4%), and Arabic (0.4%). 1.2% of residents claimed both English and a non-official language as their first language.

Religion

In 2021, 61.5% of Chathamites identified as Christian, with Catholics (29.1%) making up the largest denomination, followed by the United Church (6.1%), Anglicans (4.4%), Baptists (2.8%), and Presbyterians (2.0%), among others. 34.7% of the population stated no religion. All other religions and spiritual traditions combined accounted for 3.8% of the population. The largest non-Christian religions were Islam (1.6%), Hinduism (0.8%), Sikhism (0.4%),Buddhism (0.4%), and Judaism (0.1%).

Culture

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Sports

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Transportation

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Notable people

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