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Part of Office of Statistics and Information

Geospatial data and statistics

Learn more about statistical and administrative boundaries used in provision of census geographies and analysis.

Geospatial resources

Interactive maps, boundary files and census profiles

The Office of Statistics and Information (OSI) provides interactive options for accessing geospatial data assets in the Alberta Statistics and Analysis Explorer. It’s a product offered through GeoDiscover’s Map Viewer. See the Spatial Analysis story map to learn what geospatial analysis and mapping can do when applied to social or economic science.

The information is licensed under the Open Government Licence – Alberta. The datasets are available as zipped shapefile packages (SHP) or as geodatabases (.gdb). These downloads include standards based geospatial metadata in the North American Profile of ISO 19115.

Statistics Canada statistical boundaries

Every 5 years, Statistics Canada publishes new boundaries for statistical analysis to support the national census. These boundaries leverage administrative, statistical and non-standard boundaries. Canadian federal and provincial/territorial statutes or agencies generally create administrative boundaries that are adopted by Statistics Canada. for the purpose of data dissemination activities. Examples include provinces, territories, health regions and federal electoral districts. Statistics Canada creates statistical boundaries to support census and survey dissemination activities. Using rules based on geographic attributes and one or more characteristics of the resident population. Population centres, economic regions and dissemination areas are examples. See the 2021 Census boundary files for standard geographic areas where census data is available.

The Alberta coverage of these boundaries is packaged below into downloadable SHP files for use in geospatial analysis. Layers in each geodatabase include:

  • Economic Regions (ER)
  • Census Divisions (CD)
  • Census Subdivisions (CSD)
  • Census Metropolitan Areas (CMA)
  • Census Agglomerations (CA)
  • Census Tracts (CT)
  • Dissemination Areas (DA)

Current

Historical

General

Provincial Electoral Division (PED) boundaries

PEDs are all the areas in Alberta established as electoral divisions under the Alberta Electoral Divisions Act. They reflect the legally valid boundaries for provincial general elections and for provincial by-elections. PEDs are represented by an elected member to serve in the Alberta Provincial Legislative Assembly.

These pages link to zipped shapefile packages (SHP):

Census profiles by Electoral Division and other boundaries

These datasets provide an overview of the current Statistics Canada census data organized by areas identified and with the goal of helping understand area characteristics like age, education level, language and diversity to name a few.

These pages link to the map services available for this information:

Contact

General OSI enquiries

Hours: 8:15 am to 4:30 pm (open Monday to Friday, closed statutory holidays)
Phone: 780-427-2071
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Fax: 780-426-3951
Email: [email protected]

Related

Open Government Program