Publications

    Census Subdivision Boundary File, Reference Guide 2010

    5. Technical specifications

    Software formats
    Installation instructions
    Geographic representation
    Record layout

    Software formats

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

    • ArcInfo®
      File extension: .shp
    • Geography Markup Language version 2.1.2
      File extension: .gml
    • MapInfo®
      File extension: .tab

    Installation instructions

    The ArcInfo®, Geography Markup Language and MapInfo® files are compressed into WinZip® files (file extension .zip).

    An additional template (.tem) file is included with the Geography Markup Language files for use with the free GIS data viewer Java Unified Mapping Platform (JUMP). Also, an XML schema file (.xsd) is included to describe and validate the structure and content of the .gml files.

    The Census Subdivision Boundary File contains attributes with accented characters. These characters can be seen in UNIX and Windows® versions of ArcInfo® and MapInfo®. They were tested on desktop versions of ArcGIS® 9.0 and MapInfo® 7.0, 8.0 and 8.5.

    Geographic representation

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

    • Datum: NAD83
    • Coordinates: Longitude/Latitude

    Record layout

    Census subdivision

    The Census Subdivision Boundary File contains the boundaries of all census subdivisions which combined cover all of Canada. A census subdivision is an administrative area which is a component of the Standard Geographical Classification. Census subdivision is the general term for municipalities, as determined by provincial and territorial legislation, or areas treated as municipal equivalents for statistical purposes, for example, Indian reserves, Indian settlements and unorganized territories.

    Table 5.1
    Record layout — ArcInfo® (.shp), Geography Markup Language (.gml), MapInfo® (.tab) files
    Table summary
    This table displays the 2010 census subdivision boundary file record layout. The information is grouped by attribute name (appearing as row headers), data type and description (appearing as column headers).
    Attribute name Data type Description
    FID Object ID (4) Specific to ArcInfo®
    Shape Geometry Specific to ArcInfo®
    Digital Boundary MultiPolygon PropertyType Shape geometry; specific to Geography Markup Language
    CSDUID char (7) Uniquely identifies a census subdivision (composed of 2-digit province/territory code, 2-digit census division code and 3-digit census subdivision code)
    CSDNAME char (100) The name provided by federal or provincial/territorial authorities
    CSDTYPE char (3) Census subdivisions are classified into 55 types according to designations adopted by provincial/territorial or federal authorities
    PRUID char (2) Uniquely identifies a province or territory
    PRNAME char (100) Province or territory name
    CDUID char (4) Uniquely identifies a census division (composed of the 2-digit province/ territory code and the 2-digit census division code)
    CDNAME char (100) Census division name
    CDTYPE char (3) Census division type
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