Geographic Units:
Designated Place (DPL)
Part A – Plain Language Definition
Usually a small community that does not meet the criteria used to define
municipalities or urban areas (areas with a population of at least 1,000
and no fewer than 400 persons per square kilometre). Designated places
are created by provinces and territories in cooperation with Statistics
Canada.
Part B – Detailed Definition
A designated place is normally a small community or settlement that does
not meet the criteria established by Statistics Canada to be a census
subdivision (an area with municipal status) or an urban area.
Designated places are created by provinces and territories, in cooperation
with Statistics Canada, to provide data for submunicipal areas.
Censuses: 2001, 1996
Remarks:
With the increased pace of municipal restructuring and the discontinuation
of the unincorporated place (UP) program, there was a demand to expand
the content of the designated place (DPL) program for the 2001 Census.
Given the high volume of proposed DPL additions, Statistics Canada established
more rigorous criteria for including areas in the program:
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Areas defined as designated places are usually small communities
or settlements that fall below criteria established by Statistics
Canada for census subdivisions (areas with municipal status) or urban
areas (areas with at least 1,000 population and a population density
of 400 persons per square kilometre). |
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Provincial/territorial authorities must provide adequate boundary
descriptions of the areas on maps. |
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Designated places are usually less than 10 square kilometres in
area. |
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Designated places usually have a population density of 150 persons
or more per square kilometre. |
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The areas recognized as designated places may not represent all
places having the same status within a province or territory. |
The number of designated places increased from 828 in 1996 to 1,261 in 2001.
Table 1 in the Introduction shows the number
of designated places by province and territory. Table 9
shows the types of designated places, their abbreviated forms and their
distribution by province and territory.
Table 9. Designated Place Types by Province
and Territory, 2001 Census
Each designated place is assigned a four-digit code that is not unique
in each of the provinces and territories. The two-digit province/territory
code must precede the DPL code in order to identify each DPL uniquely
in Canada.
|
PR Code
|
DPL Code
|
DPL Name
|
DPL Type
|
DPL Part Flag
|
|
12
13
35
|
0011
0011
0011
|
Coldbrook
Bayside
Nestor Falls
|
CFA
LSD
LSB
|
2
1
4
|
Designated places are not required to respect census division (CD) or
census subdivision (CSD) boundaries, and as a result, a number of DPLs
straddle one or more CDs or CSDs. To identify these DPLs and the CSDs
that they straddle, the seven-digit SGC code (PR-CD-CSD) must precede
the DPL code. The DPL Part Flag identifies the number of CSDs that
a DPL straddles (or into how many partitions the DPL is divided as a result
of straddling a CSD or CD). The following shows how Standard Geographical
Classification (SGC) codes and DPL Part Flags identify DPLs that straddle
CSDs and CDs:
|
PR-CD-CSD
Code
|
DPL
Code
|
DPL
Name
|
DPL
Type
|
DPL Part Flag
|
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|
|
|
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|
10 08 067
|
0191
|
Smith's Harbour
|
DPL
|
2
|
|
10 08 071
|
0191
|
Smith's Harbour
|
DPL
|
2
|
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|
|
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|
13 14 005
|
0100
|
Val-d'Amour
|
LSD
|
3
|
|
13 14 008
|
0100
|
Val-d'Amour
|
LSD
|
3
|
|
13 14 012
|
0100
|
Val-d'Amour
|
LSD
|
3
|
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|
|
|
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35 59 090
|
0011
|
Nestor Falls
|
LSB
|
4
|
|
35 60 008
|
0011
|
Nestor Falls
|
LSB
|
4
|
|
35 60 063
|
0011
|
Nestor Falls
|
LSB
|
4
|
|
35 60 090
|
0011
|
Nestor Falls
|
LSB
|
4
|
It is important to note that when retrieving data for entire DPLs, the
PR and DPL codes are required. However, when retrieving data for each
CSD component of a DPL, the PR-CD-CSD and DPL codes are required. As well,
the combined PR-CD-CSD and DPL codes help to better locate DPLs within
a province.
Refer to the related definitions of Census Subdivision
(CSD), Locality (LOC) and Urban
Area (UA).
Changes Prior to the 2001 Census:
In 1996, Statistics Canada introduced the concept of designated places
as a new geographic unit for data dissemination to respond to the increasing
demand for population counts and census data according to "submunicipal"
or unincorporated areas. The concept generally applied to small communities
for which there may have been some level of legislation, but they fell
below the criteria established for municipal status.
Between 1981 and 1991, Statistics Canada had facilitated the retrieval
of census data by delineating these submunicipal areas at the enumeration
area level only. The number of areas delineated expanded from fewer than 50
northern communities in Manitoba in 1981, to more than 800 areas
across Canada by 1996.
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