Census geographic units of Canada
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The census geographic units of Canada are the country subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada[1] to conduct the country's five-yearly census. They exist on four levels: the top-level (first-level) divisions are Canada's provinces and territories; these are divided into second-level census divisions, which in turn are divided into third-level census subdivisions (roughly corresponding to municipalities) and fourth-level dissemination areas.
Census divisionsCanada's second-level geographic units are called "census divisions". In terms of size, they generally lie between the top-level administrative divisions of the province and territory and third-level administrative divisions such as sections, townships and ranges. Census divisions are divided into census subdivisions (see section below).
In most cases, a census division corresponds to a single unit of the appropriate type listed above. However, in a few cases, Statistics Canada groups two or more units into a single statistical division:
Census subdivisionsCensus subdivisions generally correspond to the municipalities of Canada. They include unorganized territories and the Indian reserves and settlements determined by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Dissemination areas
Specially-defined geographic unitsCensus metropolitan areas
A "census metropolitan area" (CMA) is a grouping of census subdivisions comprising a large urban area (the "urban core") and those surrounding "urban fringes" and "rural fringes" with which it is closely integrated. To become a CMA, an area must register an urban core population of at least 100,000 at the previous census. CMA status is retained even if this core population later drops below 100,000. CMAs may cross census division and provincial boundaries, although the Ottawa-Gatineau metropolitan area in Ontario and Quebec is the only one that currently crosses a provincial border. They do not, however, cross the Canada–United States border. ConsolidationA CMA may be consolidated with adjacent census agglomerations (CAs; see below) if they are closely integrated, to produce a grouping known as a "consolidated census metropolitan area" (CCMA). The component CMA and CAs are then described as the "primary census metropolitan area" (PCMA) and "primary census agglomeration (or agglomerations)" (PCA or PCAs). CMAs may not be consolidated with each other.[verification needed] Census agglomerations
A "census agglomeration" (CA) is a smaller version of a CMA in which the urban core population at the previous census was greater than 10,000 but less than 100,000. Census tractsCMAs and CAs with a population greater than 50,000 are subdivided into census tracts which have populations ranging from 2,000 to 8,000. See also
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