Income by Canada Zip Code

How to Find Income by Canada Zip Codes

Curious about our neighbors to the north? We all know they love hockey, maple syrup, and mounties, but what if you are looking for demographic information about Canadians, like income by Canada zip codes? Good news! Much like our U.S. Census Bureau, Canada collects demographic data and makes it available to the general public through their website Statistics Canada.

How the Canada Census Works

CENSUS RELEASES

While everyone in the US is familiar with the Decennial Census dataset that's collected every 10 years, you may not know that the US Census Bureau also conducts an annual survey called the American Community Survey (ACS). This ACS dataset provides us with up-to-date demographic information about our local communities every year.

Statistics Canada conducts a census program every five years. Their most recent census data is from 2021. The next census is set to occur in 2026 with a release date in 2027. The Statistics Canada demographic data is similar to the ACS data and can be used to target your marketing.

	U.S. Census Bureau	Canada
Most Current Demographic Data	2022	2021
When Updated	Annually in December	Every 5 years

DOES CANADA HAVE ZIP CODES?

The short answer is no. That is because Zip Codes are specific to the United States Postal Service. Rolled out July 1, 1963, the Zip Code system was used to help automate the delivery of mail. The first three numbers of the zip code correspond to specific sectional center facilities that are in charge of sorting the mail for their more specific geographic regions. The last two digits dial down to specific neighborhoods and geographic regions.

The US Census Bureau doesn't actually publish demographics for zip codes which are a route that a postal employee drives. Instead, they turn postal routes into polygons to create a geography called a Zip Code Tabulation Area or ZCTA that corresponds to most residential US zips.

Canada uses postal codes instead of zip codes when it comes to mail, but when it comes to demographic data, Statistics Canada publishes data for Forward Sortation Areas (or FSAs). FSA's are the first three characters of the postal code. Much like the sectional center facilities of the US Zip Code, Canada's FSA is a geographical region that then gets broken down even more specifically by the last characters of the postal code.

	U.S.	Canada
Geographies with demographics	5 digit ZCTAs	3 digit FSAs

To get a visual of how that looks, here is a map comparing ZCTAs in Bellingham to FSA's in the Vancouver area. You'll see that some of the 3 digit Canada FSAs are geographically smaller than some of the 5 digit US ZCTAs.

DATA DIFFERENCES

Not only are US Zip Codes/ZCTAs geographically different from Canada FSA's, there are data differences between the 2 datasets. Check out this table below to see a summary of differences between US Census Bureau ACS demographics and Statistics Canada demographics for the most popular demographics that we've pulled for thousands of clients over the years.

INCOME DATA COMPARISON

	U.S.	Canada
Currency	In 2022 $s	In 2020 $s
Median Income	Available	Available
Average Income	Available	Available
High Income (income $200K+)	Available	Available
Per Capita	Available	No Data
Median Income By Age	Available	No Data
Household Income	Less than $25,000 $25,000 - $49,999 $50,000 to $74,999 $75,000 to $99,999 $100,000 to $149,999 $150,000 to $199,999 $200,000 or more	Less than $25,000 $25,000 - $49,999 $50,000 to $79,999 $80,000 to $99,999 $100,000 to $149,999 $150,000 to $199,999 $200,000 or more

DEMOGRAPHIC DATA COMPARISON

	U.S.	Canada
DEMOGRAPHICS	2022	2021
Population	Available	Available
Population density	Number of people per square mile	We can calculate this if you need it
Age and Sex	Male & Female 10 year age brackets from 0-70+	Male & Female 10 year age brackets from 0-70+
Median Age	Available	Available
Race/Ethnicity	White Black or African American American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander Some other race Two or more races Hispanic or latino	Visible minority: refers to persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non‑Caucasian in race or non‑white in colour. South Asian Chinese Black Filipino Arab Latin American Southeast Asian West Asian Korean Japanese Visible minority, n.i.e. Multiple visible minorities Not a visible minority
EDUCATION	Educational attainment is classified according to the highest degree or the highest level of school completed.	Highest certificate, diploma or degree: highest level of education that a person has successfully completed and is derived from the educational qualifications questions, which asked for all certificates, diplomas and degrees to be reported.
POVERTY	Family Poverty: households are classified as poor when the total income of the householder's family in the last 12 months is below the appropriate poverty threshold	Low Income Cut-Offs (LICO-AT) is when a family or persons not in economic families spend more than 20% of after tax income on food, shelter and clothing. Low Income Measure (LIM-AT) is a low income line measured by taking half the canadian household income and dividing by the square root of the number of persons in the household.
UNEMPLOYMENT	Available	Available
HOUSING	Housing Units: a house, an apartment, a mobile home, a group of rooms or a single room that is occupied...as separate living quarters.	Private Dwellings: a separate set of living quarters with a private entrance
OWNER OR RENTER	Available	Available
MEDIAN VALUE	Available (owner-occupied housing units)	Available (dwellings)
HOUSEHOLDS	Household: includes all the people who occupy a housing unit. The occupants may be a single family, one person living alone, two or more families living together, or any other group of related or unrelated people who share living arrangements.	Household: a person or group of persons who occupy the same dwelling and do not have a usual place of residence elsewhere in Canada or abroad. Marital status: whether or not a person is living in a common-law union as well as the legal marital status of those who are not living in a common-law union
SOURCE	2022 Subject Definitions	Dictionary, Census of Population, 2021

Both the US Census Bureau’s ACS dataset and the Statistics Canada dataset have many more data tables than the popular tables listed above. If you don’t see the demographics or housing data that you need listed above, contact us and we’ll let you know if it’s in either the US Census Bureau’s ACS dataset and the Statistics Canada dataset or if there’s another dataset that’s a better fit.

Income by Canada Zip Code

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