Interim List of Changes to Municipal Boundaries, Status, and Names
From January 2^nd, 2016 to January 1^st, 2021

The Interim List of Changes to Municipal Boundaries, Status and Names provides a summary of the changes to census subdivisions such as municipal boundary or name changes in effect between January 2, 2016 and January 1, 2021. This report presents the changes which have been processed by Statistics Canada based on the information received and, therefore, may not include all the changes that may have occurred in this time period.

About this product

Preface

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

CSDs are an important component of the geographic structure used at Statistics Canada for collecting and disseminating data. As such, Statistics Canada carefully monitors and updates changes to the boundaries, names and other relevant information related to CSD. These changes are published in this Interim List to advise users doing trend or longitudinal analysis that the areas being compared have changed over time.

Content considerations

The summary data in this product reflect municipal changes in effect between January 2, 2016 and January 1, 2021. Notifications of the changes that took place during this period were obtained from provincial gazettes and statutes, orders of the Municipal Board and special provincial acts.

Boundary changes are compiled from legal descriptions and accompanying maps into Statistics Canada’s National Geographic Database (NGD) using the best available information. Census Subdivision Boundary Files are published on an occasional basis for public use. Any corrections or additional changes to those published boundaries reported back to Statistics Canada are represented in the subsequent issue of the Interim List.

An important reference for users of the Interim List is the Standard Geographical Classification manual. It is composed of:

• “Volume I, The Classification”
• “Volume II, Reference Maps”

Geographic changes

After a census, Statistics Canada makes public the total number of persons and the total number of dwellings counted in a given area, for example, in a municipality. By the next census, the municipality's geographic boundaries may have changed, especially if it has annexed part of another municipality or has merged with another municipality. When a boundary change occurs between censuses, the population and dwelling counts for the geographic areas affected by the boundary change are revised (adjusted). Once the dwellings affected by the boundary change are identified; it is possible to establish the population affected. These counts are then added to the geographic area that has increased in size and subtracted from the geographic area that has decreased in size.

Tables

Table 1, “Changes to census subdivisions by province and territory" (HTML | CSV), presents all changes received to date, with 2016 population adjusted to modified CSD limits, where applicable. The table is available for viewing or download for all of Canada.

In Table 1, the information is presented using the assumption that a CSD may be gaining or losing information, be it area, population, a combination of both area and population, as well as codes, names and types.

Note: A gaining CSD may have more than one entry in the table if more than one losing CSD is associated with the same transaction. Records can be grouped by transaction using the File Number field.

The record layout of Table 1 is presented in Table 2.

Table 3, “Number of census subdivision changes by type of change,” presents the number of CSD changes according to the type of change. The type of change is represented by a change code. The different change codes are presented in Table 4.

Appendices

See definitions of the geography universe from the Dictionary, Census of Population, 2021.

See the “Census Subdivision Boundary Files” from the 2021 Census Boundary Files.