Documentation - geography products
- Geography catalogue
- Hierarchy of standard geographic units for dissemination (2011) (Statistics Canada)
- Overview of the census, ch. 12 census geography (Statistics Canada)
- Illustrated glossary of terms (Statistics Canada)
- Interim list of changes to municipal boundaries, status, and names (Statistics Canada)
- Geographic area suppression lists (Statistics Canada)
- Reference maps and thematic maps, reference guide (Statistics Canada)
- Census metropolitan area (CMA) and census agglomeration (CA) delineation (Statistics Canada)
- Geography working paper series
Geospatial data
You can download 2016 census boundary files from Scholars GeoPortal or from the Statistics Canada website.
Scholars GeoPortal:
Statistics Canada website:
- Boundary files (digital and cartographic)
- Road network file
Which kind of boundary file do I need? Cartographic boundary files portray the major land mass of Canada and its coastal islands (i.e. the boundaries hug the coastlines). Digital boundary files portray the full extent of the geographic areas, including the coastal water area.
Maps
All Statistics Canada digital maps for 2016 are available on the Statistics Canada website.
- Reference Maps and Thematic Maps, Reference Guide
- Census divisions and subdivisions (national and by province): Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) reference maps (Statistics Canada)
- Census metropolitan area (CMA) and census agglomerations (CA) (national maps): Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) reference maps (Statistics Canada)
- Census tracts (by CMA/CA): Census tract reference maps (Statistics Canada).
- Forward Sortation Areas: No maps available, but see Boundary files and their Reference guide (Statistics Canada website)
- Thematic maps, various geographies (Statistics Canada website)
Dissemination Area Reference Maps will not be produced for the 2016 Census.
Geographic reference products
GeoSuite
GeoSuite is a web-based tool for data retrieval, query, and tabular output. GeoSuite allows users to explore the links between all standard levels of geography and to determine geographic codes, names, and population and dwelling counts.
Geographic Attribute File
The Geographic Attribute File contains geographic data at the dissemination block level. The file includes population and dwelling counts, land area, geographic codes, names, unique identifiers and , where applicable, types. Download the file from the Statistics Canada website.
Correspondence files
The correspondence files contain unique identifiers for the current census geographic area and the corresponding unique identifier for the previous census geographic area. In addition, a relationship flag is included which indicates the degree of correspondence between the geographic areas, facilitating the comparison between census years.
- Dissemination areas (DA), 2011-2016
- Dissemination areas (DA) and land area, 2011-2016
- Dissemination blocks (DB), 2011-2016
- Census tracts (CT), 2011-2016. Provides a correlation table between 2011 census tracts and those delineated for 2016.
- Documentation (.docx)
- Data (.xlsx)
Land Area File
- FSA land area file. Contains Forward Sortation Area (FSA) codes and size in square km. Derived from the FSA cartographic boundary file by G. Romme, 2018/04/12
- Data (.csv)
- Dissemination areas (DA) and land area, 2011-2016
Postal Code Files
See the Postal Code Conversion File section of our website.
Please contact us if you find any broken links on this page! We also have copies of these files archived at the Map & Data Library.