POPULATION ECUMENE CENSUS DIVISION BOUNDARY FILE

Description - User Guides - Datasets - back to Geographic Census Index

Ecumene is a term used by geographers to mean inhabited land. It generally refers to land where people have made their permanent home, and to all work areas that are considered occupied and used for agricultural or any other economic purposes. Thus, there can be various types of ecumenes, each having their own unique characteristics (population ecumene, agricultural ecumene, industrial ecumene, etc.). Ecumene is derived from the Greek root oixos meaning inhabited and nenon meaning space.

The population ecumene is based on blocks with a minimum population density of 0.4 persons per square kilometre (about one person per square mile). To ensure visibility for small-scale thematic mapping, the detailed ecumene limits are generalized and small, discontiguous ecumene pockets are aggregated. There is at least one ecumene pocket (polygon) in every census division.

The Population Ecumene Census Division Boundary File consists of three layers of information. The first layer contains the population ecumene with polygons for every census division. The second layer contains census divisions boundaries. The third layer contains provincial boundaries. The second and third layers are used to map the population ecumene with either of these boundaries .

Comparison of the 2006 to the 2001 Population Ecumene:

The 2006 Population Ecumene Census Division Cartographic Boundary File is derived in the same fashion as the 2001 ecumene, using the dissemination block. However, there are a few significant changes worth noting.The coastline and the large interior lakes are generalized using the hydrography created for the 2006 Census Cartographic Boundary Files.

In 2001, census division boundaries were integrated into the ecumene pockets of the mask. In the 2006 product, the mask is separate from the census division layer to facilitate thematic mapping.

The census division boundaries within the 2006 Population Ecumene Census Division Cartographic Boundary File are updated to reflect boundary changes and are not compatible with the census division boundaries contained in the 2001 Population Ecumene Census Division Cartographic Boundary File.

The 2001 Census population ecumene differs slightly from those available for the 1991 and 1996 Censuses. For the 2001 Census, the population ecumene was generalized based on population data for blocks. In 1991 and 1996, the population ecumene was derived from less detailed Enumeration Area data.

The 2001 Census product includes two layers of boundaries and more attributes than the 1996 product.

For detailed information, see the Reference Guide for each of the years: 2001, 2006.

Datasets:

         2006 - 2001

2006

In the tables below, the 2006 Data are available in either Arc/Info(r) Export format (*.E00), or in MapInfo(r) Format in the Lambert Projection or in the Latitude / Longitude Projection. Most files are available in both formats.The Data are also available from the Statistics Canada website in Geography Markup Language (GML)

2001

The Data are available in ASCII - Format with Lambert Projection, Latitude / Longitude Projection and in UTM- coordinates.

In the TDR the following products are stored: