TDR Home page Help Pages for Searching, Finding and Using Data Web-Accessible Data Owned and Maintained Locally Licence Agreements - Restrictions on Use of Locally Owned Data Send Questions and/or Comments to TDR Staff

FORWARD SORTATION AREA (FSA) BOUNDARY FILE

Description - Datasets - Reference Guide - back to Geographic Census Data Index

Description:

These files are new for 2001.

The 2001 Census Forward Sortation Area (FSA) Boundary File contains the boundaries of 1,577 forward sortation areas (the first three characters of a postal code) derived from postal codes captured from the 2001 Census of Population questionnaires. Through analysis of the postal codes reported by Census households, a single Forward Sortation Area was assigned to each reported block baseon the most frequently reported Forward Sortation Area for the block. Unreported blocks were assigned a Forward Sortation Area based on proximity to reported blocks in the same province or territory.

The product consists of two separate layers:

  • a boundary file whose extents are those of the National Geographic Base, and
  • a cartographic boundary file which incorporates hydrography (the shoreline aroundCanada) with the Forward Sortation Area boundaries.

Reference Dates:

The postal code reference month is the month of the Canada Post Corporation postal code update used to validate postal codes reported on Census questionnaires. The postal code reference month for the 2001 Census, and therefore for the forward sortation area boundaries is May 2001.

The geographic reference date is a date determined by Statistics Canada to finalize the geographic framework for which the Census data will be collected, tabulated and reported. The geographic reference date for the 2001 Census, and therefore for the geographic area boundaries used in the production process, is January 1, 2001.

(Source: Statistics Canada 2002)

Reference Guide:

Forwards Sortation Area Reference Guide [PDF]

Datasets:

The co-ordinates are in latitude/longitude and are based on the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). The product is available in ARC/INFO® interchange format and MapInfo®
interchange format in Lambert Projection or in the Latitude / Longitude Projection

In the TDR the following products are stored:

FORWARD SORTATION AREA ARCINFO MAPINFO
Boundary 2001  2001
Cartographic 2001  2001
Supplementary Hydrography Coverage 2001 2001

 
 
Home Help TDR Data Contact Us Site Map Licences