Population Centre and Rural Area Classification 2016 - Definitions

The geographical regions of Canada are groupings of provinces and territories established for the purpose of statistical reporting. There are six geographical regions of Canada.

1. Atlantic
2. Quebec
3. Ontario
4. Prairies
5. British Columbia
6. Territories

A population centre (POPCTR) has a population of at least 1,000 and a population density of 400 persons or more per square kilometre, based on population counts from the current Census of Population. All areas outside population centres are classified as rural areas. Taken together, population centres and rural areas cover all of Canada.

Population centres are classified into three groups, depending on the size of their population:

• small population centres, with a population between 1,000 and 29,999
• medium population centres, with a population between 30,000 and 99,999
• large urban population centres, with a population of 100,000 or more.

The population of the population centre includes all population living in the cores, secondary cores and fringes of census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations (CAs), as well as the population living in population centres outside CMAs and CAs.

Rural areas (RAs) include all territory lying outside population centres (POPCTRs). Taken together, population centres and rural areas cover all of Canada.

Rural population includes all population living in rural areas of census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations (CAs), as well as population living in rural areas outside CMAs and CAs.