Census Subdivision Boundary File, Reference Guide, 2017

Release date: November 15, 2017

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On this page

• What's new?
• 1. About this guide
• 2. Overview
  • How to cite this guide
  • How to cite this product
• 3. About this product
  • Purpose of the product
  • Definitions and concepts
  • Content
  • General methodology
  • Limitations
  • Comparison to other products/versions
  • Using with other products
  • Reference date
• 4. Technical specifications
  • Record layout and data descriptions
  • Software formats
  • File extension and accented character information
  • Geographic representation
  • File naming convention
• 5. Data quality
  • Lineage
  • Positional accuracy
  • Attribute accuracy
  • Logical consistency
  • Consistency with other products
  • Completeness
• Appendices

This reference guide is intended for users of the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File. The guide provides an overview of the file, the general methodology used in its creation, and important technical information.

What's new?

• The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File portrays the boundaries of all 5,162 census subdivisions which combined cover all of Canada. The boundaries, names, and codes of census subdivisions reflect those in effect on September 1, 2017, the geographic reference date for this edition of the Census Subdivision Boundary File. Information about census subdivision changes that were effective on or before the September 1, 2017 geographic reference date must be received by Statistics Canada prior to June 1, 2017, in order to be processed in time for this edition of the file.

1. About this guide

This reference guide does not provide details on specific software packages that are available for use with the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File. Users are advised to contact the appropriate software vendor for information.

This data product is provided 'as-is', and Statistics Canada makes no warranty, either express or implied, including but not limited to, warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will Statistics Canada be liable for any direct, special, indirect, consequential or other damages, however caused.

2. Overview

The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File depicts the boundaries of all 5,162 census subdivisions which combined cover all of Canada and contains information such as unique identifiers (UIDs), names and types of the geographic area presented. As well, the UIDs, names and types (where applicable) are included for the following geographic levels:

• province or territory
• census division

The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File depicts the full extent of census subdivisions, including the coastal water area.

The Census Subdivision Boundary File is portrayed in Lambert conformal conic projection (North American Datum of 1983 [NAD83]). The Census Subdivision Boundary File is available as a national file.

How to cite this guide

Census Subdivision Boundary File, Reference Guide, 2017. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 92-162-G.

How to cite this product

Census Subdivision Boundary File, 2017. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 92-162-X.

3. About this product

Purpose of the product

The purpose of the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File is to provide a framework for mapping and spatial analysis and to support Geographic Information System (GIS) applications used for land use and demographic studies, social, economic and market research.

The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File is positionally consistent with the 2017 Road Network File, which provides additional reference for mapping.

Note: It is recommended that the 2016 Census Boundary Files and Road Network File be used as a basis for the retrieval of 2016 Census data for user-defined areas. Users can define their custom areas based on the roads in the 2016 Census Road Network File. Roads within the 2016 Census Road Network File correspond to the 2016 Census geographic frame and therefore do not require additional boundary reconciliation work, which facilitates the geocoding process. For information on custom area creation and geocoding services, please contact us at 1-800-263-1136 or STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca.

Definitions and concepts

A census subdivision is a municipality or an area treated as equivalent to a municipality for statistical purposes (for example, Indian reserves and unorganized territories). Municipal status is defined by laws in effect in each province and territory in Canada.

Geographic terms and concepts are briefly defined in the Dictionary, Census of Population, 2016.

Content

The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File contains the unique identifiers (UIDs), names and types of the geographic areas represented, as well as the UIDs, names and types (where applicable) of higher geographic levels including census divisions and provinces or territories.

Note: The boundaries, names, and codes of census subdivisions reflect those in effect on September 1, 2017, the geographic reference date for this edition of the Census Subdivision Boundary File. Information about census subdivision changes that were effective on or before the September 1, 2017 geographic reference date must be received by Statistics Canada prior to June 1, 2017, in order to be processed in time for this edition of the file.

The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File is available in English and French, in two formats: ArcGIS^® (.shp) and Geography Markup Language (.gml).

General methodology

The National Geographic Database (NGD) is a joint Statistics Canada-Elections Canada initiative to develop and maintain a spatial database which serves the needs of both organizations. The focus of the NGD is the continual improvement of quality and currency of spatial coverage using updates from provinces, territories and local sources. The source files used for the creation of the boundary file reside on Statistics Canada's Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) which is derived directly from data stored on the NGD.

Creation of the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File

The Census Subdivision Boundary File was created from the lowest level of geography maintained in the SDI. Primary data manipulation of the product file included preserving the geographic hierarchy of the attributes inherent within a geographic level. A copy of the source census subdivision boundary file in its original format was created to facilitate geo-processing (e.g., joins, modifications and verification operations).

The file was verified for spatial and attribute content, translated into French and English, and appropriately named according to the file naming convention. Final data processing consisted of the conversion of the file using FME^® (Safe Software), into the following GIS file formats: ArcGIS^® (.shp) and Geography Markup Language (.gml).

The ArcGIS^® and Geography Markup Language files are compressed into WinZip^® files (file extension .zip) and made available for download from the Statistics Canada website.

Limitations

The input data used to create the file was originally obtained from several sources having a wide range of scales. This boundary file will not be precise if plotted at a larger scale than the scale of the source material used in its creation. Maps created from the boundary file should not be used to determine the precise location of boundaries. This boundary file is not intended to serve as a legal or cadastral representation of the standard geographic areas.

The positional accuracy of the file does not support cadastral, surveying, digitizing or engineering applications.

Comparison to other products/versions

Differences between the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File and previous versions of the census subdivision boundary file include:

• The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File is similar but not necessarily consistent with the suite of boundary files made available as a part of the 2016 Census geographic product line.

Using with other products

When considering using the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File, users should be aware of the compatibility of this file with those that are available from other sources. They may not be consistent with Statistics Canada files.

Reference date

The geographic reference date is a date determined by Statistics Canada to finalize the geographic framework for which statistical data are collected, tabulated and reported. The geographic reference date for the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File is September 1, 2017.

The geographic areas (e.g., municipalities and equivalents referred to as census subdivisions, census divisions and provinces or territories) are those in effect on September 1, 2017, provided that Statistics Canada received information on changes by June 1, 2017.

4. Technical specifications

Record layout and data descriptions

The following table identifies and briefly describes the selected attributes comprising the content of the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File.

Attribute domain values

PRUID

Uniquely identifies a province or territory. Please see the Province or territory definition from the Dictionary, Census of Population, 2016 for more information.

CSDTYPE

Census subdivisions are classified according to designations adopted by provincial, territorial or federal authorities. The following is a list of the types of census subdivisions.

CDTYPE

The following is a list of the types of census divisions.

Software formats

The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File is available for download from the Statistics Canada website in the following formats:

• ArcGIS^® format
  File extension: .shp
• Geography Markup Language (GML) 3.1.1
  File extension: .gml

File extension and accented character information

The ArcGIS^® and Geography Markup Language files are compressed into WinZip^® files (file extension .zip).

An XML schema file (.xsd) is included to describe and validate the structure and content of the .gml files.

The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File contains attributes with accented characters. They were successfully tested on desktop versions of ArcGIS^® 10.2.2 and FME Data Inspector 2015.1.

Geographic representation

The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File is available from the Statistics Canada website in the following geographic representation:

• Projection: Lambert conformal conic
• False easting: 6200000.000000
• False northing: 3000000.000000
• Central meridian: -91.866667
• Standard parallel 1: 49.000000
• Standard parallel 2: 77.000000
• Latitude of origin: 63.390675
• Linear unit: metre (1.000000)
• Datum: North American 1983 (NAD83)
• Prime meridian: Greenwich
• Angular unit: Degree
• Spheroid: GRS 1980

The North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83) is an adjustment of the 1927 datum (NAD27) that reflects the higher accuracy of geodetic surveying.

Users of the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File can transform the file into the representation that best satisfies their needs, knowing of the effects these representations have on angles, areas, distances and direction. Users have the option to choose the best projection in concert with display objectives.

File naming convention

Spatial product file names follow a file naming convention. The file projection, geographic level, geographic coverage, file type, geographic reference date, file format and language are embedded within the file name. Standardizing the names of the files facilitates the storage of compressed files, all having the extension .zip.

Each file name is 13 characters in length. All alphabetic characters are in lower case to maintain consistency.

First character: projection of file

• l - projection of file is Lambert conformal conic

Next three characters: primary geographic level of file

• csd - census subdivision

Next three numbers: geographic code of coverage

• 000 - Canada

Next character: file type

• a - digital boundary file

Next two numbers: geographic reference date

The geographic reference date is a date determined by Statistics Canada to finalize the geographic framework for which statistical data are collected, tabulated and reported. The geographic reference date for the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File is September 1, 2017.

• 17 - geographic reference date is 2017

Next character: file format

• a - ArcGIS^® (.shp)
• g - Geography Markup Language (.gml)

Final two characters: language

• _e - English
• _f - French

5. Data quality

Spatial data quality elements provide information on the fitness-for-use of a spatial database by describing why, when and how the data are created, and how accurate the data are. The quality elements include an overview reporting on the lineage, positional accuracy, attribute accuracy, logical consistency and completeness. This information is provided to users for all spatial data products disseminated.

Lineage

Lineage describes the history of the spatial data, including descriptions of the source material from which the data were derived, and the methods of derivation. It also contains the dates of the source material, and all transformations involved in producing the final digital files.

Positional accuracy

Positional accuracy refers to the absolute and relative accuracy of the positions of geographic features. Absolute accuracy is the closeness of the coordinate values in a dataset to values accepted as or being true. Relative accuracy is the closeness of the relative positions of features to their respective relative positions accepted as or being true. Descriptions of positional accuracy include the quality of the final file or product after all transformations.

The Spatial Data Infrastructure is not fully Global Positioning Systems (GPS)-compliant. However, every possible attempt is made to ensure that the standard geographic area boundaries maintained in the Spatial Data Infrastructure respect the limits of the administrative entities that they represent (e.g., census division and census subdivision) or on which they are based (e.g., census metropolitan area or census agglomeration). The positional accuracy of these limits is dependent upon source materials used by Statistics Canada to identify the location of limits. In addition, due to the importance placed on relative positional accuracy, the positional accuracy of other geographic data (e.g., road network data and hydrographic data) that are stored within the Spatial Data Infrastructure is considered when positioning the limits of the standard geographic areas.

Attribute accuracy

Attribute accuracy refers to the accuracy of the quantitative and qualitative information attached to each feature (e.g., census subdivision unique identifier, name, type).

As noted under Lineage, the attributes (names, types and unique identifiers) for all standard geographic areas are sourced from Statistics Canada's Spatial Data Infrastructure. The names and types of standard geographic areas have been updated using source materials from provincial, territorial and federal authorities.

The attribute data associated with the polygons in the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File were verified against data in the Spatial Data Infrastructure and found to accurately reflect data stored in the SDI.

Logical consistency

Logical consistency describes the fidelity of relationships encoded in the data structure of the digital spatial data.

The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File was verified against data in the Spatial Data Infrastructure and found to be logically consistent.

Consistency with other products

Topology checks were performed with the 2017 Road Network File and the 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File to measure the degree of integration amongst these products. The results indicated the degree of integration was within the default tolerance parameters as defined below.

• Tolerance: 0.001 metres
• Resolution: 0.0001 metres

Completeness

Completeness refers to the degree to which geographic features, their attributes and their relationships are included or omitted in a dataset.

The 2017 Census Subdivision Boundary File contains the complete set of standard geographic areas for this level of the geographic hierarchy. Users should be aware that individual census subdivisions may consist of two or more geographic parts.

Appendices

See definitions of the geography universe from the Dictionary, Census of Population, 2016.

See Figure 1.1 Hierarchy of standard geographic areas for dissemination, 2016 Census from the Dictionary, Census of Population, 2016.

See Table 1.1 Geographic areas by province and territory, 2016 Census from the Dictionary, Census of Population, 2016.

See Table 1.5 Census subdivision types by province and territory, 2016 Census from the Dictionary, Census of Population, 2016.