St-Georges-de-Beauce & Beauce-Sartigan

St-Georges-de-Beauce – with a population of 30,113 habitants – is the main town in the regional county municipality (RCM) of Beauce-Sartigan, which is part of the larger administrative region of Chaudière-Appalaches. Located in south-eastern Quebec, the area shares a border with the state of Maine.

St-Georges de Beauce is home to six out of every  ten inhabitants in Beauce-Sartigan, which contains 16 towns in all, of which seven have a population of 1000 or more.

The county municipality has the  highest percentage of people under 25 in the region, although  according to  2001 census figures, 42% of people between 15 and 24 are no longer studying,  compared to 34.7 for the region as a whole.

In 2000 the average annual income in the RCM for people aged 15 and over was slightly higher than the regional average - $ 23,321 compared to $24,083.

Local economy

As of June 2007 Beauce-Sartigan was home to 1943 businesses that together employed about 26,500 people. 90% of these businesses employed less than 20 people.

According to 2001 census figures :

•    6.5% of Beauce-Sartigan’s economy is dedicated to primary resource industries.
•    39.7 % is taken up by secondary industry – the manufacture of textiles, wood and metal products.
•    54.8% is given over the tertiary service sector.
•    For the region of Chaudière-Appalaches as a whole, secondary industry represents 29.9% of the economy and the service sector takes up 63.1%.

Between 2000 and 2008, the number of manufacturing jobs in Beauce-Sartigan dropped by 23 % - from 10,868 to 8,322, and an additional 656 jobs disappeared in 2009.

In 2008 manufacturers in Beauce-Sartigan saw their sales drop by $58 million, with export sales dropping by $54 million.

Sources:  
Emploi Québec, Profil socioéconomique de la MRC de Beauce-Sartigan, juin 2008
Le Soleil, April 2. 2009
La Presse Affaires, March 28, 2009