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Figure 1 is a graphical representation of the hierarchical relationship between the standard geographical units used for the dissemination of the 2011 Census of Canada. Each geographic unit is represented in the hierarchy by a box, which is appropriately labelled with the unit name as well as its related acronym. Where applicable, the labels are formatted in two rows. The top row contains the acronym of the geographic unit appearing in bold font and the second row contains the full name of the geographic unit in regular font.
In total, there are 19 boxes stacked both horizontally and vertically. Boxes that represent administrative areas are shaded grey. The boxes that represent statistical areas are white.
The position of each geographic unit in the hierarchy shows how it is related to other units. Most geographic units can be subdivided or aggregated to form other geographic units. The lines joining the boxes in the hierarchy show that there are relationships between the geographic units. When two boxes are not joined together by a line, then no relationship exists between those geographic units. A solid line indicates a direct relationship between two units. A dashed line indicates that two units are connected using a point-in polygon process. A dashed and dotted line (dash dot dash dot, etc.) indicates a best fit relationship between two geographic units.
In general, there is a 'one-to-many' relationship of geographic units as you move from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy diagram, and a 'many-to-one' relationship as you move from the bottom to the top.
The box centred at the top of the hierarchy represents the highest level of geography, Canada, which is shaded grey to indicate that it is an administrative area. Directly below the Canada box is the province or territory, which is also shaded grey. A solid line joins the Canada box to the province or territory box.
The province or territory box is connected to four other administrative areas on the left, including census division (CD), federal electoral district (FED), designated place (DPL) and forward sortation area. It is also connected to two statistical areas on the left, census agricultural region (CAR) and economic region (ER).
Each of these boxes, with the exception of the forward sortation area, is connected to one box or another that rolls down to be ultimately linked with the lowest level of dissemination geography, the dissemination block (DB) box, which is a statistical area. The forward sortation area is only connected to the postal code (OM: postal code is an official mark of Canada Post Corporation), an administrative area which has no further connections.
The DPL and the FED are connected directly to the DB, indicating that no other level of geography exists between them. The CD is connected first to the statistical area of the census consolidated subdivision (CCS), which is further connected to the administrative area of the census subdivision (CSD). The CAR and ER are also directly linked to the CSD. The CSD is linked directly to the dissemination area (DA), which is another statistical area. The DA is linked directly to the DB.
The Canada box is linked to one large statistical area box on the right, called the Statistical Area Classification (SAC). The SAC box is the most complicated box in the hierarchy since it encompasses four other statistical areas that make up all of Canada. These are categorized under two larger subcategories that indicate whether the area is part of a census metropolitan area/census agglomeration (CMA/CA) or is outside of a CMA/CA (non-CMA/CA).
The CMA/CA category is divided into two boxes, the CMA and the CA. The CA box is further subdivided into two other categories to indicate that CAs can be broken down into areas with census tracts (CT) and areas without CTs.
The non-CMA/CA category is also divided into two boxes, the census metropolitan influenced zones (MIZ) and the territories.
Below the SAC is a box that is subdivided into four stacked boxes that list the categories of population centres (POPCTR) in Canada. These include, from top to bottom, large urban population centre, medium population centre, small population centre and rural area. The CMA/CA boxes are directly linked to all categories of POPCTR, while the non-CMA/CA is directly linked only to the small population centre and rural area boxes. This complete set is linked directly to the DB.
Below the DB, there are three other geographic areas that are not used for disseminating data. Instead, they are linked to the DB to provide reference and/or geocoding information of census data. The place name (PN), which is a representative point, is linked to the DB by a dashed line, indicating linkage using a point-in-polygon process. The block-face, also a representative point, is linked directly to the DB. The census subdivision from the previous census is linked to the DB by a dashed-dotted line, which indicates a best-fit linkage.