RHA Districts are geographic areas that are used to define populations and catchment areas for the administration and delivery of health services. This file provides RHA district boundaries for cartographic and analytical purposes. Within Manitoba there are five Regional Health Authorities (or "RHAs") responsible for the delivery of health service in five specific areas of the province described as "health regions". (In practice, the terms "health region" and "RHA" are used interchangeably to describe these geographic areas.) In consultation with Manitoba Health, Healthy Living and Seniors, and with the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, each of the RHAs has defined further subdivisions within each RHA . These sub-areas of each RHA generally correspond to areas of clustered population and/or service delivery. They are used to plan service delivery, and are also used to describe and analyze population health and health service use with more specificity than analysis at the RHA level could provide. Due to the size and the total population of Manitoba's RHAs, there are two levels of subdivided RHA geography which are used for analytical and planning purposes. The smallest subdivisions used for this purpose are RHA Districts. RHA Districts within an RHA are also grouped into larger sub-areas with the RHA called RHA Zones, within each RHA District within an RHA included in precisely one of these zone. This shapefile contains the boundaries of Manitoba's RHA districts.

Community Areas are a standard analytical and service delivery geography for the city of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. Community Areas are a standard analytical and service delivery geography for the city of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.  The Community Areas geographic areas were developed by the Community Data Network (now more commonly referred to as the Winnipeg Community Data Consortium), with input from the WRHA, Manitoba Health, the City of Winnipeg, and other stakeholders. Community areas can be defined to either include or exclude the municipalities of East and West St. Paul. Because the Winnipeg RHA is defined to include East and West St. Paul, use of the geographies in a health services or health status context includes East and West St. Paul. Conversely, because the City of Winnipeg excludes East and West St. Paul, use of the geographies in a municipal administrative context excludes East and West St. Paul. This shapefile reflects the use of Community Areas in a health services or health status context, and includes East and West St. Paul.