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Toronto Research Guide

This guide has been designed to direct the user to data related to the City of Toronto that is available to Ryerson students, faculty and staff.

Definitions of Toronto

  • City versus GTA versus CMA
  • The City of Toronto municipality has the same boundary as the census division and census subdivision of the same name. The City of Toronto's web page is divided into 4 main sections as following:
  • Greater Toronto Area (GTA) covers a single-tier municipality - City of Toronto, and 4 upper-tier municipalities - Halton Region, Peel Region, York Region, and Durham Region. 
  • Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) includes the City of Toronto and neighbouring municipalities. The boundary is defined by Statistics Canada (StatCan), and has a different boundary than the GTA. Parts of Durham and Peel are not included while parts of Dufferin and Simcoe are.
  • The existing City of Toronto was created through Provincial legislation on January 1, 1998. Seven municipalities were amalgamated: the regional government of Metropolitan Toronto (Metro) and six local area municipalities, City of Toronto, City of North York, City of Scarborough, City of Etobicoke, Borough East York and City of York.
  • Metropolitan Toronto Records provides information about Metropolitan Toronto, which we know today as the City of Toronto. Metro was created by Metropolitan Toronto Act in 1953 and amalgamated with 6 other municipalities in 1998.

Neighbourhoods in Toronto

The first step when researching a neighbourhood is to define its boundaries. What are the street boundaries of the neighbourhood you have chosen? The web sites 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.
  • Census Tracts for Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) of Toronto. The census of Canada divides CMAs into census tracts often called neighbourhoods. For 2006 census Census Tract Profiles are available from the Census website. Each tract can contain up to 7000 people.
  • Dissemination Areas (DA) are smaller areas of up to about 700 people. The whole of Canada is divided into DAs. DA data can be found via the Canadian Census
  • Analyser (Hosted by CHASS at the University of Toronto.)
  • 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)
  • The Star's Neighbourhood Map defines Toronto's neighbourhoods through the perspective of the locals.

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.