The Wednesday census is all about population counts at different levels of geography, from provinces all the way down to city blocks. This primer will explain some of the terms you will see in the stories and in the Statistics Canada documents on their website http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/index-eng.cfm .
Province/territory: The primary legal, administrative and political divisions within Canada. There are 10 provinces and three territories.
Census division: These are artificial groupings created by Statistics Canada and the provinces to divide each province. They tend to be more stable and therefore more amenable to comparisons over time and with each other. As of last November there were 293 census divisions in Canada. In some provinces, if there is a regional government in the area, the census division boundaries mirror those boundaries. In 2006, British Columbia had 28 census divisions, Saskatchewan had 18.
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Census subdivision: This is a municipality or a First Nations reserve regardless of size. It has clear legal boundaries, and a government. This census will reflect municipal boundaries that were in place as of January 2011. Examples include the village of Perth-Andover, N.B., Victoria City, B.C. and Pelican Narrows 184B Indian Reserve in Saskatchewan.
Census agglomeration: These encompasses a city or cities that are integrated around a core. A CA has at least 10,000 population but no more than 100,000. This measure is not necessarily based on municipal boundaries. A census agglomeration is like a miniature CMA. Statistics Canada often uses commuting traffic flows to identify a core. Examples include Bay Roberts, N.L., and Canmore, Alta.
Census Metropolitan Area: These are groupings of several municipalities integrated around an urban core of at least 50,000 people. To be a CMA a region needs at least 100,000 population. After the 2006 census there were 33 CMAs in Canada. Examples include Vancouver and Saint John. CMAs can cross provincial boundaries such as the Ottawa-Gatineau CMA.
Federal Electoral Districts: This divides the entire population according to the boundaries of the current 308 ridings in the House of Commons. No districts cross provincial or territorial boundaries. An example is Windsor West in Ontario or Manicouagan in Quebec.
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