Regina - City or Census Metropolitan Area (CMA)

When Statistics Canada and others report city populations it is often unclear what geographical area they are referring to.

Do the numbers refer to just those areas within the official city limits, or do they include the wider geographical area around the city.

Statistics Canada defines a Census Metropolitan Area or CMA as follows:

A census metropolitan area (CMA) or a census agglomeration (CA) is formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a large urban area (known as the urban core). The census population count of the urban core must be at least 10,000 to form a census agglomeration and at least 100,000 to form a census metropolitan area. To be included in the CMA or CA, other adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the central urban area, as measured by commuting flows derived from census place of work data. If the population of the urban core of a CA declines below 10,000, the CA is retired. However, once an area becomes a CMA, it is retained as a CMA even if the populaton of its urban core population declines below 100,000. The urban areas that are located in the CMA or CA bit are not contiguous to the urban core are called the urban fringe. Rural areas in the CMA or CA are called the rural fringe.

Whan a CA has an urban core of at least 50,000 based on census counts, it is subdivided into census tracts. Census tracts are maintained for the CA even if the populaton of the urban core subsequently falls below 50,000. All CMAs are subdivided into census tracts.

The following map shows the Census Tracts that make up the Regina CMA.
The Census Tracts that are within the Regina city limits show as a cluster in the center of the map.

Census Tract 2006 Pop   notes
7050100.14 1510 the square surrounding the city
7050101.00 8217 the rectangular area to the east of the city
7050102.00 4937 the area north of the city, extending as far as the Qu'Appelle valley
7050103.00 1061 the square block directly west of the city

Regina Population: City and CMA
Year City CMA Pct City
1986 178,575 186,521 95.74%
1991 180,550 191,692 94.88%
1996 181,792 193,652 93.88%
2001 176,718 192,800 91.66%
2006 179,246 194,971 91.93%