A designated place (DPL) is a type of

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building * Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...

identified by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

that does not meet the criteria used to define

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

or population centres. DPLs are delineated every 5 years for the

Canadian census Statistics Canada conducts a national census of population and census of agriculture every five years and releases the data with a two-year lag. The Census of Population provides demographic and statistical data that is used to plan public servic ...

as the statistical counterparts of

incorporated place The United States Census Bureau defines a place as a concentration of population which has a name, is locally recognized, and is not part of any other place. A place typically has a residential nucleus and a closely spaced street pattern, and it fr ...

s such as

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

s, and

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

s. Though lacking separate

municipal government A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

, DPLs otherwise physically resemble incorporated places. They are created by provincial or territorial governments for the purpose of providing data for settled concentrated populations that are identifiable by name but are not legally incorporated under the laws of the province/territory in which they are located. The boundaries of a DPL therefore have no legal status, and not all unincorporated communities are necessarily granted DPL status. Some designated places may have a quasi-governmental status, such as a

local services board A local services board (LSB) is an organization in the Canadian province of Ontario that is contracted by the Government of Ontario to provide municipal-level services in a community that is not part of an incorporated municipality. Most local ser ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

or an

organized hamlet In most cases in Saskatchewan, a hamlet is an unincorporated community with at least five occupied dwellings situated on separate lots and at least 10 separate lots, the majority of which are an average size of less than one acre. Saskatchewan has ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. Others may be formerly unincorporated settlements or formerly independent municipalities that have been merged into larger governments, and have retained DPL status in order to ensure statistical continuity with past censuses. DPLs are similar to the function of

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

s in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, 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 The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

Criteria

As of the 2016 census,

requires small communities or settlements to meet the following criteria in order to become a designated place: * an area less than or equal to * "a boundary that respects the block structure from the previous census, where possible." In

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, the criteria required for a community to be defined as a designated place included:"More information on Designated place (DPL)"

. * a minimum population of 100 and a maximum population of 1,000. The maximum population limit may be exceeded provided that the

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

is less than 400 persons per square kilometre, which is the population density that defines a

population centre In demographics, the center of population (or population center) of a region is a geographical point that describes a centerpoint of the region's population. There are several ways of defining such a "center point", leading to different geogr ...

. * 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 The census geographic units of Canada are the census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct the country's quinquennial census. These areas exist solely for the purposes of stat ...

(CSD) limits. If a named area with DPL status crosses the boundary of two or more census subdivisions, then it is enumerated as multiple DPLs, each designated "Part A", "Part B", etc., rather than as a single DPL. The status of designated place was created for the first time in the Canada 1996 Census. Prior to 1996, such areas were only counted as regular enumeration areas within the applicable

census divisions Census divisions, in Canada and the United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-level census geographic unit ...

, and no special aggregation of figures was published.

Types

The

provinces and territories of Canada Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

can also have their own designated place types. The following are the designated place types as recorded in the 2016 census. (There were no designated places in

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

, the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

, and

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

for the 2016 census.)

By province and territory

In the 2021 Census of Population, there were 1,685 designated places in Canada, an increase from 1,629 in the 2016 Census of Population. Designated places are present in nine provinces and two territories. Only

and the

were without designated places in 2021.

Alberta

British Columbia

Manitoba

New Brunswick

Newfoundland and Labrador

Northwest Territories

There were no designated places in the Northwest Territories in 2021.

Nova Scotia

Nunavut

In the 2021 census,

had one designated place, an increase from none in 2016.

Ontario

Prince Edward Island

There were no designated places in Prince Edward Island in 2021.

Quebec

Saskatchewan

Yukon