Demographics: How is Neighbourhood, Community and City defined?

There are no set distances for Neighbourhood, Community and City as reference within the Demographics' section. They are concepts we adopted from Environics, who uses data from Statistics Canada.

Neighbourhood (NBH) is based on dissemination area (DA). DA is defined by Statistics Canada as a small, relatively stable geographic unit composed of one or more adjacent dissemination blocks with an average population of 400 to 700 persons based on data from the previous Census of Population Program. It is the smallest standard geographic area for which all census data are disseminated.

Community (COM) is based on the Forward Sortation Area©. FSA© is the first three characters of the postal code, designating a postal delivery area within Canada.

City (City) is based on the Census metropolitan area (CMA) or census agglomeration (CA). CMA / CA is defined by Statistics Canada as:

A census metropolitan area (CMA) or a census agglomeration (CA) is formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a population centre (known as the core). A CMA must have a total population of at least 100,000 of which 50,000 or more must live in the core based on adjusted data from the previous Census of Population Program. A CA must have a core population of at least 10,000 also based on data from the previous Census of Population Program. To be included in the CMA or CA, other adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the core, as measured by commuting flows derived from data on place of work from the previous Census Program.

If the population of the core of a CA falls below 10,000, the CA is retired from the next census. However, once an area becomes a CMA, it is retained as a CMA even if its total population declines below 100,000 or the population of its core falls below 50,000. All areas inside the CMA or CA that are not population centres are rural areas.

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