Best Places to Open a Dental Practice in the GTA (2027): Residents per Dentist by City

By Jatin Dua · Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty · Updated 2 November 2026 · 10 min read — Residents per dentist for every GTA municipality over 20,000 people, and how to use the numbers to pick a practice location in 2027.

This guide is for dentists and associates in the GTA who are deciding where to open a new practice or which town to buy into. You will get the full residents-per-dentist table for every GTA municipality with at least 20,000 people, the regional picture, and what the numbers can and cannot tell you.

Where is the best place to open a dental practice in the GTA?

On residents per dentist alone, the outer edges of the GTA have the most room. Scugog, Georgina and East Gwillimbury top the list, followed by Clarington, Milton, Halton Hills, Brampton and Ajax. The most crowded markets are Aurora, Newmarket, Oakville, Richmond Hill, Burlington, Toronto and Mississauga, each with fewer than 1,000 residents per dentist.

These numbers come from my Business Maps, which joins the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO) public register to Statistics Canada 2021 Census tracts. The pull on 3 November 2026 found 6,259 dentists at 3,174 offices across the GTA. You can zoom into your own neighbourhood on the map, which is where the real answer usually sits.

How many residents per dentist is a good ratio?

There is no official target in Ontario. Business Maps uses rule-of-thumb benchmarks drawn from Scott Leune’s GIS site-selection guide and from Oral Health Group:

• About 1,500 residents per dentist reads as saturated.
• 1,800 to 2,200 reads as balanced.
• 2,500 or more reads as underserved.

Canadian brokers often use a lower figure, about 1,250 residents per dentist, as a sustainable level. That gap matters. Under the stricter benchmark almost the whole GTA looks saturated. Under the Canadian rule of thumb, the top 13 municipalities in the table below still sit above 1,250. For context, the Canadian Dental Association put the national figure at 1,622 people per dentist in January 2016.

How the numbers were built

• Dentists are counted at their primary practice address on the RCDSO register. A dentist who works in two towns is counted once. Specialists are included.
• Census tracts were assigned to municipalities by Business Maps, so the figures are approximate at the edges.
• Population and occupied homes are from the 2021 Census. The dentist counts are from November 2026, so fast-growing places look more crowded than they really are.

Which GTA cities have the most residents per dentist? (full 2027 table)

Source: RCDSO public register (primary practice addresses, pulled 3 November 2026) joined to Statistics Canada 2021 Census tracts by jatindua.com Business Maps. Municipal figures are approximate at the edges. Municipalities under 20,000 residents (King and Brock) are left out.

Two columns are worth reading together. Residents per dentist tells you how many people each dentist would serve. Homes per office tells you how many households each clinic draws from, which matters because families tend to book together. Scugog leads on both. Georgina has a balanced ratio of 1,841 but 1,200 homes per office, which suggests many small offices.

How do Peel, York, Durham, Halton and Toronto compare?

Source: jatindua.com Business Maps (RCDSO register, November 2026; Statistics Canada 2021 Census tracts). Regional and municipal totals were assigned separately and do not match exactly.

Durham has the most residents per dentist of the five, helped by Scugog, Clarington and Ajax. Peel sits in the middle: Brampton and Caledon have more room than Mississauga. York splits sharply, with Georgina and East Gwillimbury in the north and Aurora, Newmarket and Richmond Hill among the densest markets in the GTA. The City of Toronto has the lowest ratio overall, but a city of nearly three million hides big differences between neighbourhoods.

Weighing a start-up against buying an existing practice? The estimator below gives a private value range for a practice in a few minutes.

Why are Milton, Brampton and East Gwillimbury likely more underserved than the table shows?

The table divides a 2021 population by a 2026 dentist count. Places that kept growing after 2021 have more residents today than the table assumes, so their real gap is likely larger. The 2021 Census itself showed how fast some of these towns were growing. According to the City of Toronto’s 2021 Census backgrounder, population growth from 2016 to 2021 was:

• East Gwillimbury: 44.4%
• Milton: 20.7%
• Caledon: 15.2%
• Brampton: 10.6%
• Clarington: 10.2%
• The GTHA as a whole: 4.7%, Toronto 2.3% and Mississauga −0.5%

I am not stating today’s population for any of these places. The point is direction: if those trends continued, Milton, Brampton, Caledon and East Gwillimbury are likely more underserved than their row in the table suggests.

Is a small town like Scugog a good place to open a dental practice?

Scugog has the highest ratio in the GTA at 3,664 residents per dentist, with seven dentists at three offices. That is the only municipality over 20,000 people that clears the 2,500 underserved line. But small numbers move fast. One more dentist would drop the ratio to about 3,200, and two new full-time dentists would change it a lot more. Before you commit, check where Scugog residents already go for care, how far the nearest Oshawa or Uxbridge offices are, and whether you can recruit hygienists and assistants locally.

The same caution applies to Georgina and East Gwillimbury. A balanced ratio with steady growth can be a better bet than a high ratio in a town that is not growing.

Does the Canadian Dental Care Plan change where you should open?

It adds patients, and Ontario has a lot of them. As of 30 September 2026, the federal CDCP statistics page showed 2,080,253 enrolled members in Ontario for the 2026 to 2027 benefit period, of whom 634,469 had received care. It also showed 12,933 participating oral health providers in Ontario. Those figures are province-wide, so they do not tell you how CDCP patients are spread across the GTA. If you plan to accept CDCP patients, factor that into your hours, staffing and fee mix, and ask your accountant how it affects your projections.

What should you check besides the dentist-to-population ratio?

• Your actual trade area. Patients cross municipal lines. Use the Business Maps view to look a few kilometres around the sites you like.
• Who lives there. Young families, seniors and new arrivals need different services and hours.
• The space. Plumbing, drains, x-ray rooms and zoning decide whether a unit can become a clinic. My guide to dental office space in Ontario covers the approvals.
• The lease. A great location on a short lease with a demolition clause is a poor location. Read my guide to commercial lease clauses before you sign.
• Visibility and parking. In my experience, in car-oriented suburbs, a plaza with a grocery anchor and easy parking often beats a hidden second-floor suite.

Should you start a practice in an underserved town or buy one in a busy city?

Both can work. A start-up in a growing town gives you a lower entry cost but a slow ramp-up. Buying in a dense market gives you patients on day one but at a higher price. A 2026 guide on a BMO Nesbitt Burns advisor blog said GTA practices were routinely trading at 130% to 150% of annual revenue, against roughly 80% to 120% in rural and smaller-city markets. My own estimator benchmark, taken from published broker and lender guides, is that GTA dental practices have been trading at roughly 100–150% of annual collections, with large dental groups (DSOs) keeping demand high. You can test a range for a specific practice with my dental practice value estimator. If you are buying, my guide to what you actually buy in an Ontario dental practice covers the deal itself.

What to do next

1. Pick three to five municipalities from the table that match where you want to live and work.
2. Open the Business Maps view and compare the neighbourhoods inside each one.
3. List available units for lease or sale near the gaps, and check zoning and plumbing for each.
4. Build a start-up budget and compare it with the price of buying an existing practice nearby.
5. Book a call with me to walk through sites and the lease or purchase terms.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• jatindua.com Business Maps: dentists per household across the GTA
• City of Toronto: 2021 Census backgrounder, population and dwellings
• Government of Canada: Canadian Dental Care Plan statistics
• Statistics Canada: Oral health professionals in Canada, 2021
• Canadian Dental Association: Dental health services in Canada
• BMO Nesbitt Burns (Surcon Mahoney Wealth Management): The complete guide to buying a dental practice in Canada (2026)

Related reading

• How to Sell a Dental Practice in Ontario: A Step-by-Step Guide (2027)
• How Much Is a Dental Practice Worth in Ontario? (2027)
• Dental Practice for Sale in Toronto and the GTA: How to Find One (Including Off-Market)
• Start a Dental Practice or Buy One? Ontario Costs Compared (2027)