Census and AgCensus Land Area

Question

How was or how is land area determined for the Census and Agcensus files?

Answer

Here is a description as to how land area is calculated for standard geographic areas.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/92-195-x/2011001/other-autre/land-terre/def-eng.htm

The Census of Agriculture (CAR) Regions boundary file doesn’t have land area as an attribute; although CARs are composed of groups of adjacent Census divisions except for Saskatchewan. See note below:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/92-637-g/92-637-g2011001-eng.htm

Census agricultural region
Census agricultural regions (CARs) are composed of groups of adjacent census divisions.

In Saskatchewan, census agricultural regions are made up of groups of adjacent census consolidated subdivisions, but these groups do not necessarily respect census division boundaries.

Census consolidated subdivision
A census consolidated subdivision (CCS) is a group of adjacent census subdivisions. Generally, the smaller, more densely-populated census subdivisions (towns, villages, etc.) are combined with the surrounding, larger, more rural census subdivision, in order to create a geographic level between the census subdivision and the census division.

Land Area of Saskatoon CMA from 1996 - 2001

Question

(...) the area of the Saskatoon CMA from 1996-2001 went from 5322.09km in 96 to 5192.22km in 01. What caused this decline? We have thrown around many ideas and rationalisations, however we did not have a definitive answer.

Answer

I received the following information from our geography consultants in response to your question:

"The methodology for calculating land area underwent substantial change between the 1996 Census and the 2001 Census:

• for the 1996 Census, land area was manually calculated using a planimeter on paper topographic maps. In general, manual calculations are subject to a number of discrepancies, including propagation errors over time and logical inconsistencies.



• for the 2001 Census, land area was computer generated for the first time using the Geography Division's new digital database (NGB)."