Status
This standard was approved as a departmental standard on May 16, 2016.
2016 version of the SGC
The standard classification version of the SGC 2016 provides standard names and codes for the geographical regions of Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions (counties, regional municipalities) and census subdivisions (municipalities).
The names and codes for census metropolitan areas, census agglomerations, economic regions, census agricultural regions and census consolidated subdivisions are shown in the variants of SGC 2016. The first use of the standard version of SGC 2016 and its variants was in the 2016 Census.
HTML format
PDF format
- SGC 2016 - Volume I, The Classification (catalogue no. 12-571-X)
CSV format
- SGC 2016 - Classification structure - CSV version (CSV, 233.75 KB)
- SGC 2016 - Elements - CSV version (CSV, 2.15 MB)
Concordances and documentation on changes
Variants of the SGC 2016
Statistical Area Classification - Variant of SGC 2016
This classification variant provides standard names and codes for census metropolitan areas, census agglomerations and census metropolitan influenced zones. It shows the hierarchical relationship between these geographic areas and census subdivisions (municipalities).
Statistical Area Classification by Province and Territory - Variant of SGC 2016
This classification variant provides standard names and codes for census metropolitan areas (CMAs), census agglomerations (CAs) and census metropolitan influenced zones (MIZs) by province and territory. It shows the hierarchical relationship between these geographic areas and census subdivisions (municipalities). This classification variant also shows the hierarchical relationship between the geographical regions of Canada, provinces and territories, CMAs, CAs and MIZs.
Economic Regions - Variant of SGC 2016
This classification variant provides standard names and codes for economic regions. It shows the hierarchical relationship with their component census divisions and census subdivisions by province and territory.
Agricultural Regions - Variant of SGC 2016
This classification variant provides standard names and codes for census agricultural regions. It shows the hierarchical relationship with their component census divisions, census consolidated subdivisions and census subdivisions by province and territory.
North and South - Variant of SGC 2016
This classification variant provides a definition of the North and South of Canada. It shows the hierarchical relationship with their component census divisions (CDs) and census subdivisions (CSDs) by province and territory. This variant was originally developed for the analysis of justice statistics. It is recommended for use by other program areas at Statistics Canada should it meet their needs, but there is no requirement for it to be used outside of the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics.
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.