Canada Administrative Divisions

What is the hierarchy of administrative divisions in Canada?

Canada operates on a multi-level system starting with ten provinces and three territories as the primary administrative divisions. These are further subdivided into various local government units, which may include counties, regional municipalities, districts, or regional districts, depending on the province or territory. The smallest administrative units are municipalities, such as cities, towns, villages, and townships. Census divisions and census subdivisions are statistical units used by Statistics Canada and do not always correspond directly to administrative boundaries.

Here’s a breakdown of the hierarchy:

Provinces and Territories: Canada is divided into provinces and territories, which are the primary administrative divisions.

Local Governments: Each province and territory is subdivided into local governments, which may include counties, regional municipalities, districts, or regional districts, depending on the province or territory.

Municipalities: Local governments are further subdivided into municipalities, such as cities, towns, villages, and townships, which are the smallest administrative units in Canada.

List of Canada's administrative divisions with their counts and names

These are the summarized administrative divisions. The full dataset is available in the Download Center.

iso	country	admin level 1	admin level 2	admin level 3	admin level 4
CA	Canada	Alberta (Province)	19 Census divisions	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	British Columbia (Province)	29 Regional districts	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	Manitoba (Province)	23 Census divisions	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	New Brunswick (Province)	12 Regional service commissions	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	Newfoundland and Labrador (Province)	11 Census divisions	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	Northwest Territories (Territory)	6 Census divisions	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	Nova Scotia (Province)	18 Regional service commissions	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	Nunavut (Territory)	3 Census divisions	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	Ontario (Province)	10 Districts, 22 Regional service commissions, 8 Regional municipalities, 9 Unitary Authorities	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	Prince Edward Island (Province)	3 Regional service commissions	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	Quebec (Province)	17 Administrative regions	16 Equivalent territories, 1 Census subdivision (CSD), 87 Regional county municipality	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	Saskatchewan (Province)	18 Census divisions	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.
CA	Canada	Yukon (Territory)	1 Census division	This level doesn’t exist for this country.	This level doesn’t exist for this country.

Why is building an Administrative Divisions Database complex?

The complexity arises from inconsistent global standards, frequent boundary changes, non-uniform naming conventions (e.g., “suburb” in Australia vs. “county” in the US), and variations in administrative levels across countries. Integrating and harmonizing data from multiple sources requires advanced normalization, versioning, and geospatial validation techniques.

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Our standardized database overcomes the complexity of different administrative division
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each country’s unique administrative hierarchy.

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