Market Research Companies in Toronto

Key figures for researchers

Population (City of Toronto)

2,794,356, or 7.6% of Canada (2021 census)¹

Metropolitan area (CMA)

7.11 million (1 July 2025 estimate)²

Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area

7.28 million (2021 census)¹

Immigrants

46.6% of residents, against 23.0% for Canada (2021 census)⁴

Racialized groups

55.7% of residents; largest: South Asian 12.6%, Chinese 11.1%, Black 8.9% (2021 census)⁴

Mother tongue

42.5% have a mother tongue other than English or French (2021 census)⁵

Home languages

most common besides English and French: Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, Spanish, Tamil (2021 census)⁵

No English or French

4.5% of residents (2021 census)⁵

Housing

46.7% of households live in apartments in buildings of 5 or more storeys (2021 census)⁶

Jobs

1.62 million jobs in 74,560 establishments, 40.9% of them Downtown (2025)⁷

Research guide

Research landscape

Toronto is the main centre of the Canadian research industry: full-service agencies, qualitative specialists, B2B, healthcare and public opinion firms, panel providers and viewing facilities, many of them running national studies from the city.

It is also Canada’s business capital. The 2025 Toronto Employment Survey counted 1.62 million jobs in 74,560 establishments; half of them are office jobs and 40.9% are Downtown, around the Financial District. This makes Toronto the natural base for B2B, financial services and professional services research.

Who you will interview

Always say which area you mean. The City of Toronto had 2,794,356 residents at the 2021 census, while the Toronto CMA, which adds suburbs such as Mississauga, Brampton, Markham and Vaughan, had 7.11 million on 1 July 2025. After a record gain of 3.9% the previous year, the CMA population barely changed between July 2024 and July 2025.

Toronto is far more diverse than Canada as a whole: 46.6% of residents are immigrants (23.0% for Canada) and 55.7% belong to a racialized group, mainly South Asian (12.6%), Chinese (11.1%) and Black (8.9%). 42.5% have a mother tongue other than English or French, and the most common other languages spoken at home are Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, Spanish and Tamil. 4.5% of residents speak neither English nor French.

English is the fieldwork language for almost all studies in Toronto. Plan quotas on ethnicity and immigration, and add translated questionnaires or bilingual recruiters, for example in Mandarin or Cantonese, when these communities matter.

Fieldwork in practice

Toronto is a city of towers: 46.7% of households live in apartments in buildings of five or more storeys, and only 23.3% in single-detached houses. Condominium and rental towers usually have concierges and entry systems, so door-to-door interviewing is difficult; online panels are the main method for consumer surveys, with telephone or in-person interviews for older or offline audiences (17.1% of residents are 65 or older).

Census counts are not adjusted for people missed by the census, while Statistics Canada’s population estimates are: use the estimates when weighting a recent sample. In winter, snow and cold slow down street intercepts and in-store work: favour indoor locations such as shopping centres and the underground PATH walkway downtown.

Focus groups and qualitative research

In-person focus groups are usually held in dedicated viewing facilities with a one-way mirror and video streaming. Respondents from the suburbs of the CMA may need long travel times by car or transit, so some studies run separate groups in the city and in the suburbs, or online.

Ask the agency for its Toronto incentive levels and recruitment lead times; B2B and senior respondents in the Financial District often prefer short online interviews. Online communities and video interviews are widely used, alone or alongside in-person groups.

Timing

Avoid the Christmas and New Year period: Ontario schools are closed from 21 December 2026 to 1 January 2027. The March break runs from 15 to 19 March 2027, and the school year typically ends on 30 June, after which families and B2B targets are harder to reach until early September. Plan around Ontario and federal holidays such as Canada Day (1 July), Labour Day and Thanksgiving (see the Canada guide).

Working with a Toronto agency

• Share a clear brief: objectives, target, sample size, City of Toronto or wider CMA, method, languages and deadline.
• For face-to-face or recruitment, ask how the agency reaches condo and apartment residents and minority-language communities.
• For focus groups, ask for the facility address, viewing room capacity, streaming options and incentive levels.
• Ask whether the agency holds the CRIC Accredited Agency Seal or follows the CRIC standards.
• Compare several proposals: you can send one request to up to 5 Toronto companies from this page.

National rules (data protection, holidays, sampling across regions) are covered in our guide to market research in Canada.