Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations with Census Tracts for the 2001 Census - ARCHIVED

The 2001 Census defines 27 census metropolitan area (CMAs) and 19 census agglomerations (CAs) with census tracts. This working paper includes three maps for each of these CMAs and CAs. The first map shows the boundary of the CMA/CA and the boundaries of the census subdivision (CSD) components of the CMA/CA for the 1996 Census. The second map shows the transition from 1996 to 2001 (with boundary changes highlighted), and the third map shows the CMA/CA (and component CSDs) as it is defined for the 2001 Census. Accompanying tables list the component census subdivisions and the criteria which they meet to be included in the CMA or CA. The paper describes various factors that can result in changes to the boundaries of CMAs and CAs. For the 2001 Census, municipal restructuring is the factor that has had the greatest impact on the boundaries of some CMAs and CAs.
The paper also briefly describes and compares the delineation criteria for metropolitan areas in the United States with those for census metropolitan areas in Canada. An indication is given of the impact on the Canadian CMA program if the American metropolitan area criteria were used.