Population Density



Part A - Plain Language Definition



Not applicable



Part B - Detailed Definition



Population density is the number of persons per square kilometre.



Special Note



There are 1,261 designated places (DPLs) for the 2001 Census. There are 602 census subdivisions that contain DPLs or parts of DPLs (82 DPLs straddle two or more census subdivisions). For DPLs that contain parts, the number of parts is displayed beside the DPL name (e.g. part of 2).



For more information, see the Geography Dimension Summary Box.



What's New for 2001?



* Improved coverage and quality of the digital geographic infrastructure



There is now 100% digital geographic coverage of Canada, whereas previously, digital coverage was limited to major urban centres (that covered less than 1% of the land area and 62% of the population). The new spatial data infrastructure brings together the boundaries and related attributes of the geographic areas with roads and other cartographic features of the National Topographic Database (NTDB) and Digital Chart of the World (DCW) and streets and address range updates from Elections Canada. Links to other data holdings, such as the address register and postal code, are incorporated into the database. All the spatial information is now based on the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83) instead of NAD27, which was used for previous censuses. The spatial information is stored and maintained on the National Geographic Base (NGB) and geography products are derived from this base.



* New standard geographic areas and classification



The national road coverage and related geographic attributes permit the creation of a new basic geographic unit - the block. A block is an area bounded on all sides by roads and/or boundaries of standard geographic areas.



These blocks are used to automatically generate dissemination areas (DAs). The dissemination area is a small, relatively stable geographic unit composed of one or more blocks. DAs cover all the territory of Canada and replace the enumeration areas (which are still used for census collection) as the smallest standard geographic areas for which census characteristic data are disseminated.



Census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations (CAs) are widely used statistical areas composed of groups of adjacent, largely urban municipalities (census subdivisions) that have a high degree of social and economic integration. While CMAs and CAs contain approximately 78% of the population of Canada, they cover only 4% of the land area. The census metropolitan area and census agglomeration influenced zone (MIZ) is a new concept applied to census subdivisions (CSDs) outside CMAs and CAs to further differentiate this vast, largely rural area of Canada. These non-CMA/CA census subdivisions are assigned to four categories according to the degree of influence (strong, moderate, weak and no influence) that CMAs and CAs collectively have on each of them. CSDs with the same degree of influence tend to be clustered into zones around the CMAs and CAs.



The new Statistical Area Classification (SAC) can be applied to census subdivisions (municipalities) for data dissemination purposes. SAC permits census data to be summarized for census metropolitan areas (CMAs), census agglomerations (CAs), census metropolitan area and census agglomeration influenced zones (MIZ), and the three territories. It is expected that the application of this classification to CSD data will reveal previously hidden details and help users to study the diversity of non-CMA/CA areas of Canada.



For the first time, urban areas are defined using population counts and population density data from the current census, instead of from the previous census. The population density data are block-based rather than enumeration-area based as for previous censuses.



* Impact of municipal restructuring



The boundaries and names of municipalities (census subdivisions) can change from one census to the next because of annexations, dissolutions and incorporations. However, since the 1996 Census, the changes are more numerous and more dramatic, especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. In general, data from the 2001 Census are available for fewer and larger census subdivisions, and historical analyses are more complex. To bridge the impact of these municipal changes on data dissemination, the 2001 Census is producing a profile for dissolved census subdivisions.



In addition, the concept of locality is established to maintain a record of historical place names of former census subdivisions (municipalities), former designated places and former urban areas, as well as the names of other entities, such as neighbourhoods, post offices, communities and unincorporated places.