Toronto Neighbourhoods and Census Data Research Guide

Neighbourhoods and Census Data : Defining Your Neighbourhood

The first step when researching a neighbourhood is to define its boundaries. What are the street boundaries of the neighbourhood you have chosen? The websites listed below contain information and give boundaries of Toronto's neighbourhoods from a number of sources. Different sources may have different boundaries for "neighbourhoods".

• City of Toronto: Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles - Links to a map of 140 neighbourhoods defined by the City of Toronto. Each neighbourhood is comprised of two or more census tracts (from Census of Canada). A map and socio-economic information, mainly from the Census, is available.
• Toronto Neighbourhoods - Provides information on almost every Toronto neighbourhood and community. Includes a brief description of the neighbourhood and a history as well as information on local schools, shopping and transportation.
• City of Toronto: Ward Profiles - A map showing the 44 wards of the City of Toronto. Wards and neighbourhoods do not necessarily coincide.
• Historicity - Toronto Then and Now - A Toronto Public Library Virtual Reference Library gateway, or portal, to historical and current information about the City of Toronto and its neighbourhoods. Click on "Browse Digital Collections by Neighbourhood"
• City of Toronto: Wards, Community Council Boundaries and Residential communities - A PDF file published by Urban Development Services containing a map of Wards and residential communities, 2004.
• Neighbourhoods by Census Tract - The University of Toronto Data Library Service provides tables showing census tract names (Census of Canada 2001) and the related 140 neighbourhoods (City of Toronto, 2003). One is in alphabetical order by neighbourhood name, another numerical order by census tract name (actually a number)
  

If your neighbourhood has different boundaries from the Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles mentioned above you will need go to the next step which is to find census data for the census year and neighbourhood you have selected. It is helpful to understand the census terminology used by Statistics Canada.