2011 version of the SGC
The Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) is Statistics Canada's official classification for geographic areas in Canada. The SGC covers all of the provinces and territories of Canada. It provides names and codes for the geographical regions of Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions (counties, regional municipalities), census subdivisions (municipalities), census metropolitan categories (census metropolitan areas, census agglomerations, outside census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations) and economic regions. The SGC was developed to enable the production of integrated statistics by geographic area. It provides a range of geographic units that are convenient for data collection and compilation, and useful for spatial analysis of economic and social statistics. It is intended primarily for the classification of statistical units, such as establishments or households, whose activities are normally associated with a specific location.
The classification consists of two parts, volume I and volume II. Volume I describes the classification and related standard areas and place names. It also explains the changes between the 2011 edition of the SGC and the 2006 edition that impact directly upon the SGC, such as changes in name, type, or code, and indicates how the new and old codes relate to one another. Volume II contains reference maps showing the locations and boundaries of the standard geographic areas in the classification.
Reference Maps
Volume II consists of four maps of Canada that illustrate locations of individual census divisions, census metropolitan areas, census agglomerations, census metropolitan influenced zones and economic regions. These are referred to as the National maps. Also included are 23 maps that show the boundaries of census divisions and census subdivisions. These are referred to as the Census divisions - Census subdivisions (CD-CSD) maps.