Data reference standard on Canadian Provinces and Territories

Introduction This reference data provides a standard list of values for all Canadian provinces and territories. The list reflects Canada’s 13 major political units. There are many coding systems for Canadian provinces and territories. The data standard shows the relationships among the recommended code and other common codes. Purpose This list is intended to standardize the way Canadian provinces and territories are described in datasets to enable data interoperability and improve data quality. Not included in this standard are previous names, abbreviations and codes for provinces and territories. When changes occur in the future, version history will be maintained. Applicability Use of the codes within the “Alpha Code” column is recommended when sharing data within the federal government or publishing data to the Open Government Portal. This alpha code was chosen for three reasons: it is comprehensible for users it is closely aligned with the ISO 3166-2 code for subdivision and is identical to the Canada Post abbreviation it has already been adopted by a number of federal departments The Alpha Code exactly matches the set of codes created and managed by Canada Post. If Canada…

Publisher

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

Resources

2

Catalogue metadata updated

2025-12-03