Designated place

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A designated place or DPL is a type of community or populated area identified by Statistics Canada for statistical purposes. DPLs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages.

DPLs are communities that lack separate municipal government, but which otherwise physically resemble incorporated places. CDPs are delineated to provide data for settled concentrations of population that are identifiable by name but are not legally incorporated under the laws of the province in which they are located. The boundaries of a DPL have no legal status.

Some designated places may be served by a quasi-governmental organization, such as a local service board in Ontario. Others may be former municipalities which have been merged into larger governments but have retained DPL status in order to ensure statistical continuity with past censuses.

DPLs are similar to the function of census designated places in the United States, but are defined differently. One significant difference is that Statistics Canada applies the designation to much smaller communities than does the United States Census Bureau.

[edit] Creation

To be defined as a DPL under current Statistics Canada rules, a community must have:

a minimum population of 100 and a maximum population of 1,000. The maximum population limit may be exceeded provided that the population density is less than 400 persons per square kilometre, which is the population density that defines an urban area
a population density of 150 persons or more per square kilometre
an area less than or equal to 10 square kilometres
a boundary that respects the block structure from the previous census, where possible
a boundary that respects census subdivision (CSD) limits. ^[1]

[edit] Statistics

In the Canada 2006 Census, there were 1,289 communities in Canada which had the status of designated place, located in nine provinces and one territory. There were no designated places in Prince Edward Island, Nunavut or the Northwest Territories in 2006.