Township in Southwest Ontario, inside Waterloo Region
Woolwich property tax rate, 2024
1.01%of the assessed value on your MPAC notice, each year
$5,049 a yearon a $500,000 home, or about $421 a month
Lower than 86% of the 414 Ontario municipalities
Each dot is one municipality, placed by its newest filed rate. Further right is higher.
Woolwich 1.01%
Middle 1.40%10 more, up to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Woolwich
Middle 1.40%10 more, to 6.85%
0.5%1.0%1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%
Lowest fifth
Low
Middle fifth
High
Highest fifth
Woolwich
Woolwich in short
$5,049 a year on a $500,000 home: $1,387 to Woolwich council, $2,897 to Waterloo Region and $765 to schools.
Up 0.11 points since 2019, or $553 a year more on a $500,000 home.
Rent $1,180 a month, home value $755,000 in the 2021 Census, against an Ontario middle of $980 and $400,000.
Woolwich has not filed 2025 with the province yet, so this page uses 2024, the newest year it has filed.
Every municipality is compared at its newest filed rate: 283 of the 414 have filed 2025.
Who sets the rate
Three bodies set Woolwich's rate: Woolwich council at 0.28%, Waterloo Region at
0.58%, and the Province of Ontario for schools. The county portion is
57% of the bill, set by a council you vote for separately.
$1,387$2,897$765
Portion
Rate
On $500,000
Share
MunicipalWoolwich council
0.28%
$1,387
27%
County or regionWaterloo Region
0.58%
$2,897
57%
EducationProvince of Ontario
0.15%
$765
15%
Total
1.01%
$5,049
100%
Each rate is rounded to two decimals, so the parts can add up to 0.01 off the total.
How the rate has changed, 2019–2024
Up every year since 2020. Since 2019 the total rate here has risen by 0.11 percentage points, from 0.90% to 1.01%. On a $500,000 home that is $553 a year more than in 2019.
20190.90%$4,497
20200.83%$4,169
20210.84%$4,206
20220.88%$4,401
20230.94%$4,714
20241.01%$5,049
Total residential rate, with the tax on a $500,000 home underneath.Each part of the rate, year by year
Over the same years the residential assessment base moved from $3,414M to
$3,971M, and the residential levy collected went from $30M
to $40M. A rate rising while the base also grows means the budget grew faster than
property values; a rate falling while the base grows usually means the opposite. Assessment is the figure on the
MPAC notice, still based on 2016 values province-wide.
Year
Municipal
County or region
Education
Total
Change
On $500,000
2019
0.22%
0.52%
0.16%
0.90%
—
$4,497
2020
0.22%
0.46%
0.15%
0.83%
−0.07 pts
$4,169
2021
0.23%
0.46%
0.15%
0.84%
+0.01 pts
$4,206
2022
0.24%
0.49%
0.15%
0.88%
+0.04 pts
$4,401
2023
0.26%
0.53%
0.15%
0.94%
+0.06 pts
$4,714
2024
0.28%
0.58%
0.15%
1.01%
+0.07 pts
$5,049
Why are Woolwich property taxes so low?
Woolwich's total rate of 1.01% is 0.39 percentage points below the provincial middle (1.40%), which is not the same as a small bill. The taxable value is large next to what the budget must cover — $3.97B of residential value funds $40.1M in levy here — so a lower percentage raises enough, and the dollar amount on an expensive house can still be high.
Home values
Homes here are assessed at $389,495 per household, 42% more than the middle ($274,250). Higher values let it raise the same money per household at a lower rate.
Spending
It spends $3,343 per household, 22% less than the middle ($4,313). It spends more on parks and recreation (+$350), planning and development (+$85) and fire (+$9), and less on water and wastewater (−$351) and running the municipality (−$274).
← Less than the middleMore than the middle →
Parks and recreation+$350
Planning and development+$85
Fire+$9
Water and wastewater−$351
Running the municipality−$274
More on why
Who gets the money
Of that rate, 0.58% goes to Waterloo Region and 0.15% to schools; 0.28% is set by Woolwich itself.
Across Ontario
Across the 241 towns inside a county or region, the tax rate follows home values much more closely than spending: where homes are worth more, rates tend to be lower (rank correlation −0.70 for home values, 0.45 for spending). A pattern, not proof of cause.
What it costs to live in Woolwich
Cost
Woolwich
Ontario middle
Rent, per monthmedian, 2021
$1,180Higher than 80% of 354
$980
Home valueowners’ estimate, 2021
$755,000Higher than 90% of 412
$400,000
Property tax on a $500,000 assessment2024
$5,049Lower than 86% of 414
$6,992
Households spending 30% or more on housingshare of income, 2021
13.7%Lower than 59% of 400
15.0%
Household incomemedian, before tax, 2020
$115,000Higher than 93% of 405
$84,000
Ontario has no official cost-of-living index for single towns. Statistics Canada’s consumer price index covers only Toronto, Ottawa and Thunder Bay here, and it measures change over time, not the gap between places. These are the costs published for each municipality: what renters paid and owners estimated in the 2021 Census, not today’s asking rents or sale prices.
Places like Woolwich
The 5 places closest to Woolwich on total tax rate, assessment / household, spending per household, population, 5-year growth, people per household, among towns inside a county or region.
Residential is one of 12 classes Woolwich reported this year. The tax ratio is the multiple
applied to the residential rate: a ratio of 1.7 on multi-residential means an apartment building pays 1.7×
what a house pays on the same assessed value.
Class
Tax ratio
Municipal
County or region
Education
Total
Commercial
1.95
0.54%
1.13%
0.88%
2.55%
Industrial
1.95
0.54%
1.13%
0.88%
2.55%
Large Industrial
1.95
0.54%
1.13%
0.88%
2.55%
Office Building
1.95
0.54%
1.13%
0.88%
2.55%
Parking Lot
1.95
0.54%
1.13%
0.88%
2.55%
Shopping Centre
1.95
0.54%
1.13%
0.88%
2.55%
Pipeline
1.1613
0.32%
0.67%
0.88%
1.88%
Multi-Residential
1.95
0.54%
1.13%
0.15%
1.82%
New Multi-Residential
1
0.28%
0.58%
0.15%
1.01%
Residential
1
0.28%
0.58%
0.15%
1.01%
Farmland
0.25
0.07%
0.14%
0.04%
0.25%
Managed Forest
0.25
0.07%
0.14%
0.04%
0.25%
Sources and method
Tax rates and spending come from the Financial Information Return that Woolwich files with the Province of Ontario; population, rents and home values from Statistics Canada.
Every source, the method and the limits
Tax rates
Ontario Financial Information Return (FIR), 22 GPL — Municipal and School Board Taxation. Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Municipal Act s.294(1). Years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024; retrieved 2026-10-11.
Download the file
Spending, households
Financial Information Return Schedule 40 (consolidated expenses by function) and Schedule 02 (households and population).
Population
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 17-10-0155-01, Population estimates, July 1, by census subdivision. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Rent, home value, income
Adapted from Statistics Canada, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Statistics Canada Open Licence. Rent is the median monthly shelter cost of renter households (rent plus any utilities they pay).
The Ontario middle is the median across the municipalities with a published figure.
Method
Dollar figures are the rate times $500,000 of assessed value. Standing compares Woolwich's 2024 total
residential rate with all 414 Ontario municipalities: 356 of the other 413 charge more. The five colours split them into fifths.
Municipality ID
MunID 30029, MAH 25604
Limits
These are the figures Woolwich filed with the province. An individual bill can include area-specific charges and
local improvement levies that a municipality-wide rate does not capture. Reference, not tax advice.