Statistics on resource-based communities

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Resource-based communities are communities where a relatively high proportion of the economic base comes from resource industries (agriculture, fishing and forestry). Statistics on these communities describe the population living in them in 2021 and offer a portrait of a typical resource-based community in 2016 and 2021. These statistics are based on data from the 2016 and 2021 censuses of population. They are produced at the census subdivision (CSD) level and are presented by province and territory.

Resource-based CSDs are identified using employment income from industries that are based on ecosystem provisioning services, as well as the total employment income in the CSD. Industries are defined according to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), as shown in Table 1.

A resource industry’s contribution to a community’s economic base is measured by dividing the employment income from that industry by the total employment income in that CSD. This contribution is indicative of the importance of ecosystem biomass provisioning services to the community’s economy. However, certain provisioning service flows are not taken into account, such as those associated with traditional and recreational fishing and gathering.

Resource-based communities are defined as the 2% of CSDs in Canada with the highest proportion of employment income derived from a resource industry. This corresponds to 103 CSDs in Canada (based on 2021 or 2016 Census of Population geography) for each resource industry (agriculture, fishing, or forestry).

For example, the threshold that defines resource-based communities in 2021 is the proportion of income from a resource industry of the 103rd CSD, after ranking the CSDs in descending order based on that proportion (103 corresponds to 2% of the total number of CSDs in 2021, rounded down to the nearest whole number). The minimum proportion of income from a resource industry for a CSD to be identified as “resource-based” is presented in Table 2, for each industry, and for 2016 and 2021 (these data can also be found in table 38-10-0169 ).

The analysis included all CSDs in Canada (5,162 in 2016 and 5,161 in 2021). In some CSDs, however, the value of employment income is confidential under the provisions of the Statistics Act or it is unavailable for a specific reference period. For analysis purposes, the proportion of income from a resource industry was treated as missing in these CSDs and they were placed at the bottom of the sorted list. Nevertheless, some of these CSDs may have had a proportion of income from a resource industry that could have placed them in the top 2%.

Access data tables and methodological information through the following links: