Selection of Statistics Canada 2016 geographic boundaries

Here is a selection of web services displaying the geographic boundaries of the most common administrative and statistical areas published by Statistics Canada.

Administrative areas are defined, with a few exceptions, by federal and provincial statutes and are adopted by Statistics Canada to support the collection and dissemination of data. Administrative areas supported by Statistics Canada include:

Province and territory (PR)
Federal electoral district (FED)
Census division (CD)
Census subdivision (CSD)
Designated place (DPL)


Statistical areas are defined by Statistics Canada to support the dissemination of data. They are created according to a set of rules based on geographic attributes and one or more characteristics of the resident population. Some statistical areas maintained by Statistics Canada include:

Census agricultural region (CAR)
Economic region (ER)
Census consolidated subdivision (CSS)
Census metropolitan area and census agglomeration (CMA/CA)
Census tract (CT)
Aggregate Dissemination Areas (ADA)
Dissemination area (DA)
Dissemination block (DB)

To have a better understanding of the relationships between these areas, refer to the "Hierarchy of standard geographic areas for dissemination" diagram in the Data Resources below.

NOTE: Services may not all be listed in the Related Products section below as they are added individually only once available for publication.