ENUMERATION AREA (EA) CIRCLES: A NEW ACCOUNTING OF NEIGHBORHOOD ENVIRONMENTS IN CANADA

Abstract

The Census of Canada tells us much about dwellings but little about neighborhood environment. If we want to know just how many Canadians live in homogeneous, modern, low-density suburbs, the best that many scholars can do presently is to assign each Census Tract (CT) to a category of neighborhood environment, and then add up counts of households in all CTs that fit into a specified category. However, Statistics Canada also provides summary data at a finer geographic scale: the Enumeration Area (EA). This paper explores a measure of neighborhood environment derived using a circle of fixed radius drawn around each EA centroid. Each EA centroid is at the center of its own circle but also may lie within circles drawn around other EAs. In this paper, each circle is assigned to a category of neighborhood environment on the basis of housing found in EAs whose centroids lie within the circle. Categorization of neighborhood environment is based on principal type of dwelling and period of construction found within the circle, and the homogeneity of the stock. This paper finds significant differences in neighborhood characterizations when using EA circles compared to CTs. These differences are most marked in the case of larger urban areas. The paper considers why this is the case.