Community Profile
Norris Point is considered a park community by visitors to the region even though it is not physically located within the Gros Morne boundaries and its economy and culture have been and still are tied to its resource base. Although resources have been traditionally defined as extractive, resources may include the people and activities, as well as natural surroundings which offer no harvested commodity. These resources will become more important in a tourism context when recognized and celebrated.
The population of Norris Point was 785 in 2001, with 385 males and 405 females. This number is lower than in previous years; like the population of Newfoundland and Labrador in general, the number of people living in Norris Point has dropped in the medium term. The population age distribution of Norris Point shows an older median age (42.6 years) than that of the provincial population (38.4 years).
Employment in Norris Point, as is typical in much of Western Newfoundland, is characterized by a
high percentage of seasonal work. Although the Norris Point labour force participation rate in 2001, at 57.9%, was almost identical to the provincial rate of 57.6%, the unemployment rate in Norris Point was 30.1%, considerably higher than the provincial rate of 21.8%. Both of these rates were substantially higher than the Canadian unemployment rate of 7.6% (2002).
In 2001, the average work earnings of all people who reported earnings in Norris Point (full and part-time) were $19,368, as opposed to $24,165 for the Province. For those residents who had full-time jobs,
the earnings in Norris Point were also comparatively low – $28,796 as opposed to $37,806 for the
province as a whole. The median income for all residents over 15 years old was $14,703, as opposed to $16,050 for the province.