Last updated 2023.04.26
A number of assignments in different courses require students to find information about specific census tracts; this page will help you do that.
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Census tracts (CTs), first reported for the 1941 census, are defined in the 2016 Census Dictionary as
"... small, relatively stable geographic areas that usually have a population of less than 10,000 persons, based on data from the previous Census of Population Program. They are located in census metropolitan areas and in census agglomerations that had a core population of 50,000 or more in the previous census."
Colloquially, they are often referred to as "neighbourhoods", but they do not necessarily correspond to "neighbourhoods" as we commonly understand the term.
Each census tract has a number (or CT name); for example, the census tract in which York University is located is known as 311.06 (sometimes written with a leading 0, i.e., 0311.06). The CT name is not unique all by itself; it must be combined with the code of the census metropolitan area (CMA) or census agglomeration (CA) in which it is located. The CMA/CA code for the Toronto CMA is 535; therefore, a unique identifier for York's CT would be 5350311.06. Depending on how you look the information up, you will need to know at least one and possibly both numbers.
There are a variety of ways in which you can locate a census tract (if you already have the number), or identify a census tract (if you know the location).
A common question that comes up is to find census information on a specific Toronto neighbourhood, usually designated by a name of some sort. Use one or more of the following links to get the street boundaries of the neighbourhood in question (if you don't already know where it is) and then use Geoportal to find the census tracts in that area (NOTE: instructions can be found below under "Online maps").
Print sources -- You can find your census tract on a printed index map. All available census tract maps are found in the Map Collection on the first floor of the Scott Library building. At times of peak use during assignments, copies of the CT index maps may be found on reserve in the Scott Library (check the reserve list for your course to get the call number), as well as at the Scott Reference desk.
- 1971-2016 census
- By postal code or intersection, using GeoPortal
NOTE: Use of Geoportal on a tablet or other mobile device is a bit tricky, but it does work; ask me for details
- Go to GeoPortal
- Change the search type from 'data' to 'Place or address'; input a postal code (if you have one) or an intersection (e.g., steeles avenue and keele street, toronto) and click on 'Search'
- You MAY get more than one search result; choose the most likely one (click on 'zoom' to verify it).
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- Click on 'Find data'
- Click on 'Census and administrative boundaries'under 'Refine: topics' on the left;
- Click on the 'data' radio button, above the search box, then search for 'census tracts';
- Looks for 'Census Tracts - Cartographic Boundary File (CT-CBF), [census year of choice] Census' (e.g., 'Cartographic Boundary Files (CBF), 2016 Census' for 2006 data); click on 'Add'.
- Scroll down to find 'Census Tracts' on the left, then click on the 'Add' button next to it on the same line.
- Click on the 'Add' button under the option you've chosen. The map will now display census tract boundaries in red. To make the boundaries more obvious, change the base map (by clicking on 'base map' in the top right menu) to one of the grayscale alternatives (Esri Light Grey Canvas or Light Gray Canvas) to make the red boundaries stand out more clearly.
- Click on the map. The census tract you clicked on will be displayed in yellow, and a box will pop up, giving you the CTUID (Census Tract Unique Identifier) -- a 7.2 digit number (e.g., 5350311.06 would be the CTUID for the census tract York U is in). Pick the census tract that appears to represent your neighbourhood best (e.g., mostly within the neighbourhood boundaries, the largest population of the CTs within the neighbourhood, etc.)
- The Reference maps page allows you to find maps by searching by postal code or place name (not neighbourhood name), as well as providing a list by census tract number for each census metropolitan area (CMA)
- GeoSearch 2021, GeoSearch 2016, GeoSearch 2011 allows you to search by place, postal code, street address, street intersection, or geographic code
- 2006 census
- 2001 census
- Census tract reference maps available online. At this site, choose the link "Census tracts" to access the index maps for a CMA/CA, showing all CTs; choose "Dissemination areas" to access maps of individual census tracts.
- Direct access to census tract index maps (scroll down to the maps for Toronto) and maps of individual census tracts.
- GeoSearch lets you locate any street or intersection of streets in Canada, and find out the names of the census tracts bounded by or containing these streets, plus population and dwelling count data. Click on the ? icon to find out more.
Once you know which census tract(s) you're after, where is the information? Once again, you can find this in a variety of places:
- Print sources -- The collection in SCOTT-GOV-REF has profiles of census tracts for Toronto for the census years 1951, 1961, 1971 - 2006. However, the print product may contain less detailed information. Go to the call number CAN1 CS8.7 [ census year] and look for the Profiles volume that specifically mentions census tracts and Toronto.
- Online sources -- This varies with the census year:
- Canadian Census Analyzer has census tract level profile data available for 1961, 1971, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016
- 2016 Census tract profiles are available from the main 2016 census profile page via the CT geographic code (i.e., for York University's census tract, use 5350311.06)
- 2011
- 2006
- If you know the CT number or a postal code within the CT, use the Census Tract (CT) Profiles, 2006 Census site both to identify the CT, get a map, and/or get profile data for that CT. However, these profiles are not as detailed as the complete cumulative profiles for census tracts for 2006.
To find Toronto-area census tract data:
- Click on the 'Geographic index' link, immediately below the words Select data categories for this product
- Click on 'Toronto'
- You will now see links to the data for the entire Toronto CMA, and for each census tract
- Click on the desired link to see the data; click on the 'Download' tab to find the link to the data in .csv format
- 2001
- Profiles and topic-based tabulations with census tract level information are available direct from Statistics Canada census web site; look for the entries that have "census tracts" in the product title. These data are available both in HTML and Beyond 20/20 formats.
- 1996 -- Profiles and basic summary tabulations at the census tract level are available in Beyond 20/20 format from UofT.
Contact the Data Librarian if you have any questions or need help finding the information you need.
