Health Regions: Boundaries, Geographic Information and Population Estimates, 2000 [Canada] [Excel files, digital mapping files]

Health regions are defined by provincial governments as the areas of responsibility for regional healthboards (i.e., legislated) or as regions of interest to health care authorities. In 1998, Statistics Canada, together with the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Advisory Council on Health Info-Structure (Health Canada),consulted stakeholders across Canada to identify current and future needs for health information. These consultations identified a need for comprehensive and comparable sub-provincial data. In response to this need, health regions were investigated as an alternative geographic unit for disseminating health information. This report provides an overview of health regions in Canada, along with sourcesand methodologies for developing and understanding the health region data linkage and digital boundary files, geographic attributes, and population estimates. The same health region boundaries contained in Health Regions - 2000 have been used in the sample design for the Canadian Community Health Survey. Future boundary changes may cause adjustments to the survey collection and dissemination process, or sample revisions for future survey cycles. For current Health Regions data, refer to Statistics Canada.