POSTAL CODE CONVERSION FILE

Description - Datasets  - Example - back to Geographic Census Data Index

Description:

The Postal Code Conversion File (PCCF) is a digital file, which provides a correspondence between the Canada Post Corporation (CPC) six-character postal code and Statistics Canada’s standard geographic areas for which census data and other statistics are produced. Through the link between postal codes and standard geographic areas, the PCCF permits the integration of data from various sources.

The geographic coordinates attached to each postal code on the PCCF are commonly used to map the distribution of data for spatial analysis (e.g., clients, activities). The location information is a powerful tool for marketing, planning, or research purposes.

In April 1983, the Geography Division released the first version of the PCCF, which linked postal codes to 1981 census geographic areas and included geographic coordinates. Since then, the file has been updated on a regular basis to reflect changes.

For this release of the PCCF, the vast majority of the postal codes are directly geocoded to 2006 Census geography. This improves precision of the file over the previous conversion process used to align postal code linkages to new geographic areas after each census. About 94% of the postal codes were linked to geographic areas using the new automated process.

A quality indicator for the confidence of this linkage is available in the PCCF.

The geographic reference date is a date determined by Statistics Canada to finalize the geographic framework for which the census data are collected, tabulated and reported. The geographic reference date for the 2006 Census is January 1, 2006.

New for 2006:

• The postal code reference date for this Postal Code Conversion File (PCCF) is September 2007.
• With this release, some geocoding linkages within the PCCF were improved. A total of 928 records were updated and 3,455 were deleted from the postal code database used to generate the PCCF.
• A file is available that indicates all of the postal codes corrected in the September 2007 PCCF.
• The postal codes are linked to the geographic areas used in the 2006 Census of Population. The reference date for these geographic areas is January 1, 2006.
• New record level metadata are included indicating the source, quality and type of linkage made between the postal code and the geographic area.
• For the first time, virtually all postal codes are aligned to respect 2006 Census geographic areas using an automated geocoding system. The geocoding was performed directly to the new geographic areas rather than converting linkages from previous census geographic areas.
• Records representing postal codes retired prior to January 1, 2006 are available in a separate file. This file follows the same record layout as the PCCF.
• More postal codes are linked to the block-face, compared with the previously released PCCF.
• A conceptual review of the postal code to geographic area linkage was completed. The resulting working paper, entitled How Postal Codes Map to Geographic Areas (Catalogue no. 92F0138MIE2007001), is available on the Statistics Canada website (www.statcan.ca).
  Statistics

• A new geographic unit, the block, has been added to the standard hierarchy.
• A new statistical area classification code (SAC) has been added to the census subdivision.
• All the spatial information is now based on the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83).
  

User Guides:

For more information please refer to the following:

              1986 ;   1991 ;  1996 [PDF] [DOC] ; 2001 [PDF] ; 2006 [PDF]

Datasets:

The Data are available in ASCII format in the Latitude / Longitude Projection.
(1986 & 1991 data is available in Latitude/Longitude and Universal Transverse Mercurator (UTM) projections.

1996 files are updated to May, 2002.
2001 files are updated to October, 2005.
2006 files are updated to September, 2007.

In the TDR the following products are stored: