Health Analysis Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Health Rep. 2020 Jun 17;31(3):3-13. doi: 10.25318/82-003-x202000300001-eng.
Postal codes are often the only geographic identifier available to match subjects in a health dataset to census geography. This paper describes the characteristics of postal codes reported by the Canadian population on the census and, as an indicator of geocoding accuracy, the proportion that are linked to a single dissemination area (DA).
Postal codes reported on the 2016 Census questionnaire were matched to a combination of the Postal Code Conversion File (PCCF) and the Postal Code Conversion File Plus (PCCF+ version 7B) (reference date November 2018) to calculate population-weighted counts and the number of matches to DAs by province or territory, delivery mode type (DMT), population centre or rural area size, and census metropolitan area. The number of single matches to census tracts (CTs), census subdivisions (CSDs) and census divisions (CDs) was also calculated.
In Canada, 72.6% of the population reported postal codes that matched to a single DA. This proportion was higher in urban cores (87.1%) and among postal codes for an urban street address (DMT=A) (85.3%) or apartment building (DMT=B) (95.3%), and was lower in rural areas (26.2% to 38.1%) and among rural postal codes (13.9%). In comparison, 89.3% and 95.4% of the population reported postal codes matching to a single CSD or CD, respectively, while 92.1% of the population that live within CT boundaries were matched to a single CT.
Matching postal codes to census geography is relatively accurate and frequently one to one in urban centres. In rural areas and for some types of postal code DMTs, alternative approaches to using the PCCF and PCCF+ for attaching census geography might be explored.
邮政编码通常是将健康数据集的研究对象与人口普查地理区域相匹配的唯一地理标识符。本文描述了加拿大人口在人口普查中报告的邮政编码的特征，并作为地理编码准确性的指标，报告了与单个传播区域（DA）相匹配的邮政编码的比例。
使用 2016 年人口普查问卷中报告的邮政编码与邮政编码转换文件（PCCF）和邮政编码转换文件加（PCCF+版本 7B）（参考日期为 2018 年 11 月）进行匹配，以计算各省或地区、投递模式类型（DMT）、人口中心或农村地区规模以及普查都会区的人口加权计数和与 DAs 的匹配数量。还计算了与普查地段（CT）、普查分区（CSD）和普查分区（CD）的单一匹配数量。
在加拿大，72.6%的人口报告的邮政编码与单个 DA 匹配。在城市核心区（87.1%）以及城市街道地址（DMT=A）（85.3%）或公寓楼（DMT=B）（95.3%）的邮政编码中，这一比例更高，而在农村地区（26.2%至 38.1%）和农村邮政编码中，这一比例较低（13.9%）。相比之下，分别有 89.3%和 95.4%的人口报告邮政编码与单个 CSD 或 CD 匹配，而居住在 CT 边界内的 92.1%的人口与单个 CT 匹配。
将邮政编码与人口普查地理区域相匹配相对准确，在城市中心通常是一对一的。在农村地区和某些类型的 DMT 中，可能需要探索使用 PCCF 和 PCCF+附加人口普查地理区域的替代方法。
