Access to public transport by distance in Canada

Data on the location of public transportation stops were shared directly or provided through websites of municipalities or local transit authorities. For the purposes and the scope of this project, public transportation is considered a regularly scheduled transport service with assigned physical stop locations and excludes on-demand or on-call services like taxis, taxi buses and Uber.

Sustainable Development Goals

Statistics Canada uses road network data to calculate the walking distance to a public transit stop.

Following the recommendations and suggestions of the United Nations, the estimates of the population living within access to a public transit stop were disaggregated by the following dimensions:

- transportation mode that could be used to reach public transport (walking and cycling). A cycling distance of 2 kilometres is an alternative metric of spatial access relevant to today's city infrastructure. A cycling distance of 2 kilometres was used to estimate spatial access to high-capacity transit stops only.

- type of public transport system (low-capacity and high-capacity systems)

- location (urban and rural)

- gender (women+ and men+)

- age group (0 to 14 years; 15 to 64 years, including 15 to 19 years and 20 to 24 years; and 65 years and older)

- other socio-economic characteristics.

The table published as part of this product, "Access to public transport by distance and public transport carrying capacity, geography, gender, and selected demographic and socio-economic characteristics," contains richer information and replaces table 23-10-0311-01.

Data sources, methodology and limitations

The summary data presented in this release rely on the census metropolitan area (CMA) and census agglomeration (CA) concepts (see 2021 Census of Population Dictionary for the full definitions).

For reference year 2023, the spatial access estimates cover 1,107 municipalities, collectively covering 889 census subdivisions (CSDs) in all 41 CMAs, 70 of the 111 CAs and 218 of the 4,154 CSDs outside CMAs and CAs. Based on the 2021 Census population counts, the coverage rate is estimated at 97.1% of the population in CMAs and CAs and 83.9% of the total population in Canada.

For reference year 2024, the spatial access estimates cover 1,099 municipalities, collectively covering 866 CSDs in all 41 CMAs, 68 of the 111 CAs and 233 of the 4,154 CSDs outside CMAs and CAs. Based on the 2021 Census population counts, the coverage rate is estimated at 96.5% of the population in CMAs and CAs and 83.3% of the total population in Canada.

The method used to estimate the percentage of Canadians living within a distance of a public transport access point was as follows:

1. Locations of public transport stops of all kinds (e.g., bus, trolley, surface and underground rail, ferry) were obtained from the municipalities' or the local transit authorities' websites or directly provided to Statistics Canada. Complete data coverage was achieved for the municipalities constituting the 41 CMAs. Other municipalities inside CAs and outside of CMAs and CAs were included when regularly scheduled public transit service was identified and the geospatial data were available.

2. Public transit stop locations and the Road Network File data were used to create service areas dependent on distance and public transit carrying capacity.

3. Service area boundaries were used to estimate the population counts based on 2021 Census data at the blockface geographic level.

4. Counts at the blockface level were aggregated to the municipal, CSD, CMA and CA, provincial and territorial, and national levels.

5. The proportion of the population within a service area for each geographic unit in scope was calculated by dividing the estimated counts by the geographic unit's total population.

6. Note that the provincial and territorial and the national aggregate totals are calculated based on the sum of values of the geographies within the scope of analysis.

7. Statistics Canada data confidentiality and rounding rules were applied to all estimates.

For the areas not covered by the data on public transportation, either the data were not readily available in a standard geospatial format, or such data did not exist due to the lack of public transit service. Therefore, the resulting estimates could overestimate convenient access to public transportation at the higher levels of aggregation (national, provincial and territorial levels). The results by CMA and CA are not affected.