A population ecumene is the area of inhabited lands or settled areas generally delimited by a minimum population density. This ecumene shows the areas of the densest and most extended population within census subdivisions.

A census subdivision (CSD) is the general term for municipalities (as determined by provincial or territorial legislation) or areas treated as municipal equivalents for statistical purposes (e.g., Indigenous Peoples reserves and communities and unorganized territories). Municipal status is defined by laws in effect in each province and territory in Canada.

The assemblage of dissemination block population density data from the 2016 Census of Population are used to form the ecumene areas within census subdivisions. Areas included in the ecumene are dissemination blocks where the population density is greater than or equal to 0.4 persons per square kilometre or about one person per square mile. In some areas to capture more population within the ecumene the criteria was extended to 0.2 persons per square kilometre. The ecumene areas were generalized in certain areas to remove small uninhabited areas within the ecumene areas in census subdivisions.

This map can be used as an “ecumene” overlay to differentiate the sparsely populated areas from the ecumene areas in conjunction with census subdivision data or other large-scale maps. This ecumene shows a more meaningful distribution of the population for Canada.