National Address Register
User Guide

Summary

The National Address Register (NAR) sets up a standardized address structure and provides a list of valid georeferenced civic addresses in Canada. The addresses are extracted from Statistics Canada’s Building Register and were validated by two independent data sources. The addresses do not disclose the identity of any of the residents or businesses at the address and as such are deemed non-confidential. The corresponding mailing version of the address is added and follows Canada Post's addressing guidelines. Non-civic address, additional delivery, and building usage information will be included for civic addresses that have this data available. This first prototype was developed in the context of the Data Strategy Roadmap for the Federal Public Service and in close collaboration with Employment and Social Development Canada to set up address reference data as a service. It is made available for free under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Definitions

Census division (CD) is the general term for provincially legislated areas (such as county, municipalité régionale de comté and regional district) or their equivalents. In other provinces and the territories where laws do not provide for such areas, Statistics Canada defines equivalent areas for statistical reporting purposes in cooperation with these provinces and territories. Census divisions are intermediate geographic areas between the province/territory level and the municipality (census subdivision).

Census subdivision (CSD) is the general term for municipalities (as determined by provincial/territorial legislation) or areas treated as municipal equivalents for statistical purposes (e.g., Indian reserves, Indian settlements and unorganized territories). Municipal status is defined by laws in effect in each province and territory in Canada.

Economic region (ER) 2021 is a grouping of complete census divisions (CDs) (with one exception in Ontario) created as a standard geographic unit for analysis of regional economic activity.  

Federal electoral district (FED) 2021 is an area represented by a member of the House of Commons. The federal electoral district boundaries used for the 2021 Census are based on the 2013 Representation Order.

Globally unique identifier (GUID) is a hexadecimal unique ID represented in a string format with a length of 36, including dashes (i.e., 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc). GUIDs are assigned and used within the NAR to permit the referencing of specific entities such as address or location entities (see the Technical specifications section for more details on address and location definition) and the efficient retrieval of their attributes. 

Latitude and longitude are coordinates derived from the blockface centroid (when blockface was available). A blockface represents one side of a street between two consecutive features intersecting that street. The features can be other streets or boundaries of standard geographic areas. Blockfaces are used for generating blockface representative points, which in turn are used for geocoding and census data extraction when the street and address information are available.

Technical specifications

National Address Register Data model

Location (locationId) vs. address (addressId)

Location is referencing a specific place or position. In the case of the National Address Register (NAR), the location is synonymous with a physical building. The address can be defined as the particulars of the location where someone lives or an organization is situated. In the case of the NAR, the address corresponds to “building units.” Each location (building) has at least one address (building unit). For example, a single home will have one location and one physical address. An apartment or office building would have one location and several addresses for each building unit. A single home would be a one-to-one relationship and an apartment building would be a one-to-many relationship.

Example 1
A single home (single dwelling or building unit) with one address, 1 MAIN ST, TORONTO, ON M1M1A1, would have one unique locationId and one unique addressId (1:1 relationship).
1 MAIN ST, TORONTO, ON M1M1A1
locationId: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc
addressId: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789Bbc

Example 2
An office building that has multiple floors and units or suites at location 123 MAIN ST, TORONTO, ON M2M1A1 would have one unique locationId and many unique addressIds (1:n relationship). Each “building unit” would have its own address differentiated by the unit or suite number.

1. 2-123 MAIN ST, TORONTO, ON M2M1A1
   locationId: 22345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc
   addressId: 22345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789Zbc
2. 4-123 MAIN ST, TORONTO, ON M2M1A1
   locationId: 22345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc
   addressId: 22345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789Ybc
3. 5-123 MAIN ST, TORONTO, ON M2M1A1
   locationId: 22345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc
   addressId: 22345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789Xbc
4. 8-123 MAIN ST, TORONTO, ON M2M1A1
   locationId: 22345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc
   addressId: 22345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789Rbc

Example 3
Address that uses all properties and attributes:
12-123 A MAIN ST N, OTTAWA, ON A0A 0A0



Appendix

Census Subdivision (CSD) Types

Census Subdivision (CSD) Types (CSDs) are classified into various types according to official designations adopted by provincial, territorial or federal authorities. Two exceptions are 'subdivision of unorganized' (SNO) in Newfoundland and Labrador, and 'subdivision of county municipality' (SC) in Nova Scotia, which are geographic areas created as equivalents for municipalities by Statistics Canada, in cooperation with those provinces, for the purpose of disseminating statistical data.

Table 1.5 shows CSD types, their abbreviated forms, and their provincial.

Geographies

Standard Geographical Classification (SGC)

 

Canada Post Symbols and abbreviations

Street types, Street directions, Provinces and territories

Contact information

Feedback and suggestions are welcome to improve and expand the use of the NAR, as well as questions or concerns. Please contact us at the following email address: statcan.statisticalregistersinfo-inforegistresstatistiques.statcan@statcan.gc.ca.