Walkable communities

• Proportion of the population who report having places to buy household essentials (e.g. shops, markets) and having several free or low cost recreation facilities (e.g. parks, walking trails, bike paths, recreation centres, playgrounds, public swimming pools) within easy walking distance of home.
• Proportion of the population who live within walking distance to employment, grocery stores, pharmacies, health care, child care, primary education, secondary education, public transit, neighbourhood parks, arts and cultural sites, or libraries.

Each of the components of this indicator is measured separately.

Proportion of the population that reports having places to buy household essentials (e.g., shops, markets) and having several free or low cost recreation facilities (e.g., parks, walking trails, bike paths, recreation centres, playgrounds, public swimming pools) within easy walking distance of home

This indicator is measured in selected iterations of the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS). In the 2018-2019 iteration of the survey, respondents were asked:

The next items are statements about your neighbourhood related to walking and bicycling. Please tell me if you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly agree.

There are many shops, stores, markets or other places to buy things within easy walking distance of your home.

• Strongly agree
• Somewhat agree
• Somewhat disagree
• Strongly disagree

Your neighbourhood has several free or low cost recreation facilities, such as parks, walking trails, bike paths, recreation centres, playgrounds, public swimming pools, etc.

• Strongly agree
• Somewhat agree
• Somewhat disagree
• Strongly disagree

Proportion of the population who live within walking distance to employment, grocery stores, pharmacies, health care, child care, primary education, secondary education, public transit, neighborhood parks, arts and cultural sites, or libraries

Data from the Proximity Measures Database (PMD) are used to measure both the proportion of the population who can access potential employment within a specified period of time and the proportion of the population who can access amenities within a specified period of time. The PMD measures a dissemination block's proximity to the following ten destinations:

• employment
• grocery stores
• pharmacies
• health care
• child care
• primary education
• secondary education
• public transit
• neighbourhood parks
• libraries

A dissemination block is a block in urban areas (e.g. a city block) or an area bounded by roads in rural areas. The dissemination block is the smallest geographic area for which population and dwelling counts are disseminated. By using dissemination blocks to calculate proximity, the PMD provides the highest level of geographic detail currently possible.

Proximity measures are based on a simple gravity model that accounts for the distance between a reference dissemination block and all the dissemination blocks in which the service is located (within a given distance) and the size of the services. The measure also accounts for the presence of services within the dissemination block of reference. The size of the service is captured by the total employment or total revenue of the service, or more simply, the presence of points of access to the service within a given distance. For more information on the sizes of the services used for each measure, please refer to the section "Additional Information" on the page Proximity Measures Data Viewer.

Measures for each of these destinations, except public transit, are based on walking network distances between the centroids of dissemination blocks. Rather than using a straight line calculation, using the walking network allows the PMD to account for natural barriers (e.g. rivers, cliffs) or built obstacles (e.g. buildings, stairs) in its proximity calculation. Measures for public transit use the walking network distance between the centre of a dissemination block and any public transit stop within a given range.

The Proximity Measures Database derives proximity to employment using the employment counts of all businesses within a given dissemination block from Statistics Canada's Business Register (BR). It refers to locations where there is potential employment. It does not take into account factors such as job vacancies or characteristics of the potential employment which may impact its suitability for different individuals (e.g. type of occupation, pay, etc.).

The database has approximately half a million records from various sources, including authoritative open data sources. Information on proximity to specific locations is provided wherever possible, although some data limitations exist in certain geographies. As the number of authoritative open data sources increases, a trend in recent years, future iterations of the proximity measures will have more comprehensive coverage spatially.

• Proximity Measures Database (PMD)
  • For data, please refer to Downloading the Proximity Measures Database
• Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS)

• Proximity Measures Data Viewer (Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products)

• Occupational and sex differences in active commuting among Canadian workers from 2006 to 2016 (Health Reports, September 18, 2024)

Analysis on walkable communities has been conducted in the past using data from the Canadian Active Living Environments (Can-ALE) database, the CHMS and the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). The methodology used for Can-ALE is different from the methodology used for the PMD and as such the resulting data are not directly comparable. The following report and infographic are based on Can-ALE data:

• The association between walkable neighbourhoods and physical activity across the lifespan (Health Reports, September 18, 2019)
• Walkable neighbourhoods and physical activity in Canada (Statistics Canada – Infographics, September 18, 2019)