'Province' and 'territory' refer to the major political units of Canada. From a statistical point of view, province and territory are basic areas for which data are tabulated. Canada is divided into 10 provinces and 3 territories. Statistics Canada uses standard codes and abbreviations to represent provinces and territories. The two-digit code that uniquely identifies each province/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/territory is located and the second digit denotes one of the 10 provinces and 3 territories.

Group of neighbouring municipalities joined together for the purposes of regional planning and managing common services (such as police or ambulance services). These groupings are established under laws in effect in certain provinces of Canada. Census division (CD) is the general term for provincially legislated areas (such as county, municipalité régionale de comté and regional district) or their equivalents. In other provinces and the territories where laws do not provide for such areas, Statistics Canada defines equivalent areas for statistical reporting purposes in cooperation with these provinces and territories. Census divisions are intermediate geographic areas between the province/territory level and the municipality (census subdivision). Census divisions (CD) have been established in provincial law to facilitate regional planning, as well as the provision of services that can be more effectively delivered on a scale larger than a municipality. In Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, provincial or territorial law does not provide for these administrative geographic areas. Therefore, Statistics Canada, in cooperation with these provinces and territories, has created equivalent areas called CDs for the purpose of disseminating statistical data. In Yukon, the CD is equivalent to the entire territory. Next to provinces and territories, census divisions (CD) are the most stable administrative geographic areas, and are therefore often used in longitudinal analysis.

The Geographic Attribute File (GAF) contains information at the dissemination block level, based Census standard geographic areas. The data available include population counts, dwelling counts, and land area. In addition, the Geographic Attribute File contains higher level standard geographic codes, names and, where applicable, types and classes. Data for higher level standard geographic areas can be derived by aggregating dissemination block level data. The dissemination area representative point coordinates are also included in the Geographic Attribute File.

The 2025 Census Subdivision Boundary File depicts the boundaries of all 5,054 census subdivisions, which combined, cover all of Canada. It contains the unique identifier (UID), name and type, as well as the UIDs, names and types (where applicable) of selected higher geographic levels. The 2025 Census Subdivision Boundary File is portrayed in Lambert conformal conic projection (North American Datum of 1983 [NAD83]) and is available as a national file.

Census subdivision (CSD) is the general term for municipalities (as determined by provincial/territorial legislation) or areas treated as municipal equivalents for statistical purposes (e.g., Indian reserves, Indian settlements and unorganized territories). Municipal status is defined by laws in effect in each province and territory in Canada. Census subdivisions (CSDs) are classified into 53 types according to official designations adopted by provincial/territorial or federal authorities. Two exceptions are 'subdivision of unorganized' (SNO) in Newfoundland and Labrador, and 'subdivision of county municipality' (SC) in Nova Scotia, which are geographic areas created as equivalents for municipalities by Statistics Canada, in cooperation with those provinces, for the purpose of disseminating statistical data. The census subdivision type accompanies the census subdivision name in order to distinguish CSDs from each other, for example, Balmoral, VL (for the village of Balmoral) and Balmoral, P (for the parish / paroisse (municipalité de) of Balmoral).

The 2022 Census Subdivision Boundary File depicts the boundaries of all 5,180 census subdivisions (CSDs), which combined, cover all of Canada. It contains the unique identifier (UID), name and type, as well as the UIDs, names and types (where applicable) of selected higher geographic levels. The 2022 Census Subdivision Boundary File is portrayed in Lambert conformal conic projection (North American Datum of 1983 [NAD83]). The 2022 Census Subdivision Boundary File is available as a national file.

The 2022 Census Subdivision Boundary File depicts the boundaries of all 5,180 census subdivisions (CSDs), which combined, cover all of Canada. It contains the unique identifier (UID), name and type, as well as the UIDs, names and types (where applicable) of selected higher geographic levels. The 2022 Census Subdivision Boundary File is portrayed in Lambert conformal conic projection (North American Datum of 1983 [NAD83]). The 2022 Census Subdivision Boundary File is available as a national file.

The 2024 Road Network File depicts the digital road line coverage for Canada. It contains information such as street arc unique identifier (UID), name, type, direction and address range, as well as class. It also includes province or territory (PR) and census subdivision (CSD) information for each side of a street arc (where applicable). The Road Network File is portrayed in Lambert conformal conic projection (North American Datum of 1983 [NAD83]) and is available as a national file.

The 2025 Road Network File depicts the digital road line coverage for Canada. It contains information such as street arc unique identifier (UID), name, type, direction and address range, as well as rank and class. It also includes province or territory (PR) and census subdivision (CSD) information for each side of a street arc (where applicable). The Road Network File is portrayed in Lambert conformal conic projection (North American Datum of 1983 [NAD83]) and is available as a national file.

GeoSuite is a tool used for data retrieval, query and tabular output. It allows users to explore the links between all standard levels of geography and to identify geographic codes, names, unique identifiers, and, where applicable, types, as well as land area and population and dwelling counts. GeoSuite includes data for the following the 2021 Census standard geographic areas: • Canada (CAN) • Provinces and territories (PRs) • Census divisions (CDs) • Federal electoral districts (FEDs) (2013 Representation Order) • Census subdivisions (CSDs) • Designated places (DPLs) • Economic regions (ERs) • Census consolidated subdivisions (CCSs) • Census metropolitan areas (CMAs), census agglomerations (CAs) and census metropolitan influenced zones (MIZs) • Census tracts (CTs) • Population centres (POPCTRs) and rural areas (RAs) • Dissemination areas (DAs) • Dissemination blocks (DBs) • Aggregate dissemination areas (ADAs) • Place names (PNs)