Dictionary, Census of Population, 2021
Province or territory

Definition

'Province' and 'territory' refer to the major political units of Canada. Canada is divided into 10 provinces and 3 territories. From a statistical point of view, province and territory are basic areas for which data are tabulated.

Reported in

2021, 2016, 2011, 2006, 2001, 1996, 1991, 1986, 1981, 1976, 1971, 1966 and 1961

Remarks

Statistics Canada uses standard codes and abbreviations to represent provinces and territories. The two-digit code that uniquely identifies each province or territory is based on the Standard Geographical Classification (SGC). The code is assigned from east to west. The first digit represents the geographical region of Canada in which the province or territory is located and the second digit denotes one of the 10 provinces and 3 territories (Table 1.8).

Refer to the related definitions of Census Division (CD) and Standard Geographical Classification (SGC).

Changes prior to the current census

Effective October 20, 2008, the names 'Yukon Territory' in English and 'Territoire du Yukon' in French become 'Yukon' in English and in French, as per the Yukon Act (Chapter 7, assented March 27, 2002).

Users should be aware that there is no change to the abbreviations or to the numeric and alpha codes for Yukon. The abbreviations remain Y.T. in English and Yn in French, 60 for the numeric code and YT for the alpha code.

On October 21, 2002, the alpha code for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador changed from NF to NL. Furthermore, the official English abbreviation for Newfoundland and Labrador changed from Nfld.Lab. to N.L. The official French abbreviation remains unchanged.