Census Metropolitan Area

Census Metropolitan Area

Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is a geographical area created by Statistics Canada for the purposes of collecting and organizing data for large urbanized areas. CMAs delimit the main labour market of an urbanized core and its dependent contiguous urban and rural areas, whose principal or central city must have a population of 100 000. They contain municipalities completely or partly inside the urbanized core and other peripheral incorporated and unincorporated areas if (1) at least 50% of the employed work force living in the CMA works in the core, or (2) at least 25% of the employed labour force working in the CMA lives in the urbanized core. CMAs may differ from metropolitan areas designated by local governments. According to the 1996 Census of Canada, there are 25 CMAs and they are usually known by the name of the principal city forming their core, eg, Halifax, Toronto or Winnipeg.