Focus on Geography Series, 2016 Census - About the data

Historical comparison of geographic areas

The boundaries and names of geographic areas can change from one census to the next. In order to facilitate data comparisons between censuses, the data have been adjusted to reflect as closely as possible the 2016 boundaries of these areas.

Area and data suppression

In addition to random rounding, area and data suppression has been adopted to further protect the confidentiality of individual respondents' personal information.

Area and data suppression results in the deletion of all information for geographic areas with populations below a specified size. For example, areas with a population of less than 40 persons are suppressed. If the community searched has a population of less than 40 persons, only the total population counts will be available. Suppression of data can be due to poor data quality or to other technical reasons.

For more information, refer to Geographic areas not released.

Random rounding

To ensure confidentiality, the values, including totals, are randomly rounded either up or down to a multiple of '5' or '10.' To understand these data, you must be aware that each individual value is rounded. As a result, when these data are summed or grouped, the total value may not match the individual values since totals and sub-totals are independently rounded. Similarly, percentages, which are calculated on rounded data, may not necessarily add up to 100%.

Incompletely enumerated Indian reserves and Indian settlements

In 2016, there were a total of 14 Indian reserves and Indian settlements that were incompletely enumerated. For these reserves and settlements, dwelling enumeration was either not permitted or was interrupted before it could be completed.

This represents a decrease compared to the 31 Indian reserves and Indian settlements that were incompletely enumerated in the 2011 Census. Note that in 2011, of the 31 incompletely enumerated Indian reserves and Indian settlements, 13 were not enumerated as a result of forest fires in Northern Ontario at the time of census collection. In 2016, there were no Indian reserves or Indian settlements that were not enumerated due to a natural disaster.

The 2016 Census population and dwelling counts are not available for the 14 incompletely enumerated Indian reserves and Indian settlements, and are not included in 2016 Census tabulations. Data for geographic areas containing one or more of these reserves and settlements are noted accordingly. Because of the missing data, users are cautioned that for the affected geographic areas, comparisons (e.g., percentage change) between 2011 and 2016 may not be precise. The impact of the missing data for higher-level geographic areas (Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations) is very small. However, the impact can be significant for lower-level geographic areas (e.g., census divisions), where the incompletely enumerated Indian reserves and Indian settlements account for a higher proportion of the population. This is especially true for lower-level geographic areas where a particular Indian reserve or Indian settlement was incompletely enumerated for the 2016 Census and enumerated for the 2011 Census and vice versa.

Table 1 provides the list of incompletely enumerated Indian reserves and Indian settlements for the 2016 Census, along with population counts from the last two censuses (where available).

Table 2 shows, in alphabetical order, the list of incompletely enumerated Indian reserves and Indian settlements for the 2016 Census by province, census division and, where applicable, for the census metropolitan area or census agglomeration.

Percentage change for the population and dwelling counts

The percentage change for the population and dwelling counts is based on a 2011 count that may have been revised since the publication of the 2011 population and dwelling counts. If the 2011 count has been revised, it will be indicated by an 'r' beside the count. The 2011 population and dwelling counts may be revised due to the reasons identified below.

(1) The boundary of the geographic area has changed since the 2011 Census

When a boundary of a geographic area changed, Statistics Canada identified the impact of the change on the population and dwellings enumerated during the 2011 Census, and adjusted these counts to reflect the 2016 boundaries of the geographic areas. Most of the revisions to 2011 population and dwelling counts are due to this type of adjustment.

(2) A formal review of the 2011 population and dwelling counts identified an error

When Statistics Canada releases population and dwelling counts from the census, data users sometimes question the validity of the counts for a specific geographic area such as a municipality (census subdivision) or sub-municipal area (designated place). When requested by local authorities, Statistics Canada undertakes a formal review of the population and dwelling counts.

In 2011, 158 census subdivisions (CSDs) and 40 designated places (DPLs) underwent a formal population and dwelling count review and their counts were revised. For the 2016 Census products showing 2011 counts, these revised 2011 counts are presented in tables for CSDs and DPLs and used to calculate percent change between 2011 and 2016 at that level of geography.

The revised counts are presented in tables only for CSDs and DPLs. The 2011 counts for other levels of geography (e.g., province, territory, census division) are not revised. As a result, aggregating 2011 CSD counts to higher-level geographic areas (e.g., census divisions, provinces, territories, and Canada) may not sum to the counts presented on the higher-level geographic areas. As well, the percent change for all levels of geography, other than CSDs and DPLs, do not account for these revisions.

Differences in growth rates between this product and analytical documents

Please note that there may be some differences between the growth rates contained in this product and analytical documents, such as The Daily and articles in the Insights on Canadian Society (ICS) series to account for the effect of changes in enumeration of Indian reserves. For example, the data tables in this product show different population growth values for the two census metropolitan areas (CMAs) of Brantford and Québec than those shown in The Daily.

In The Daily and its related tables, the effect of changes in enumeration of Indian reserves for the CMAs of Brantford and Québec are taken into account when calculating population growth rates, whereas they are not in this product. As a result, excluding a reserve that was incompletely enumerated in 2016 which was counted in 2011, as was done in The Daily, the population of Brantford CMA grew 3.8% in 2016. Including the population of this reserve, as was done in this product, the population of Brantford CMA fell 1.0%. Conversely, for Québec CMA, excluding a reserve that was incompletely enumerated in 2011 which was counted in 2016, as was done in The Daily, the population grew 4.0% in 2016. Including the population of this reserve, as was done in this product, the population of Québec CMA increased 4.3%.