Rural Data

Introducing Rural Data

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A New Hub for Understanding Rural Communities and Accessibility in Canada

Across Canada, rural communities are diverse, dynamic, and essential to the social and economic fabric of the country. Yet, despite their importance, there remains a persistent gap in the availability of high-resolution, rural-specific data to support health and social planning.

Much of what we know about population health and service access is derived from datasets and classifications designed for urban contexts or broad regional comparisons. These approaches often obscure meaningful differences within and between rural communities. As highlighted in recent scholarship, rural health research has also tended to focus narrowly on disadvantage and urban comparison, rather than capturing the complexity, variability, and resilience of rural places. This creates challenges for planners, policymakers, and researchers who require more precise, locally relevant evidence to inform decision-making.

Rural Data was developed to help address this gap. This platform represents an ongoing effort. Future updates will expand datasets, add new service domains, and enhance tools for analysis and visualization.

Supporting Better Rural Decision-Making

Rural communities are not simply “less urban” – they are complex, heterogeneous environments with distinct needs, strengths, and patterns of access to services. Effective planning requires tools that reflect this reality.

By providing high-resolution, service-specific, and openly accessible data, Rural Data aims to:

  • Support more equitable resource allocation
  • Enable evidence-informed rural policy and planning
  • Facilitate new research on accessibility and population health
  • Move beyond simplified rural–urban comparisons toward a more nuanced understanding of place

We invite researchers, planners, and community partners to explore the data, use the tools, and contribute to a more informed understanding of rural Canada.

Building Better Measures of Accessibility:
The CARI+

At the core of this platform is the Canadian Accessibility and Remoteness Index Plus (CARI+), a new approach to measuring accessibility across the rural–urban continuum in Canada.

CARI+ moves beyond traditional categorical definitions of rurality by:

  • Measuring accessibility as a continuous gradient, rather than a binary rural–urban classification
  • Using road-network travel time and distance to capture real-world access to services
  • Operating at the Dissemination Area (DA) level, enabling small-area analysis linked to Census data
  • Supporting service-specific measurement, allowing accessibility to be examined across different domains

This approach produces both:

  • A summed accessibility score (0–18)
  • A normalized score (0–1) for easier comparison and visualization

Together, these measures provide a flexible and transparent framework for understanding how access to services varies across Canada.

CARI+ Datasets Available on Rural Data

The Rural Data platform provides access to multiple CARI+ datasets, developed to reflect different types of essential services:

National (Canada-wide)

  • Accessibility to population centres (general measure)
  • Accessibility to 24-hour emergency departments
  • Accessibility to in-patient mental health facilities
  • Accessibility to obstetric and birth services

Ontario-specific

  • Accessibility to pharmacies
  • Accessibility to youth neurodevelopmental disorder assessment and treatment services (Autism, ADHD, OCD)

Each dataset is linked to:

  • 2021 Census socioeconomic and demographic indicators
  • Measures of marginalization, including the Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (CIMD), Material and Social Deprivation Index (MSDI), and related indices

This integration enables users to explore how accessibility intersects with:

  • Material and social deprivation
  • Education and income
  • Age structure and population composition
  • Indigenous identity
  • Immigration patterns

What You Can Do on This Website

The Rural Data platform is designed as an open-access hub for both researchers and decision-makers. It provides several key functions:

1. Explore Rural Research

Access summaries of recent research using CARI+, including:

  • Applied examples in health and social planning
  • Published academic articles
  • Interactive ArcGIS StoryMaps illustrating key findings

2. Interact with CARI+ Data

Use interactive tables to:

  • Explore accessibility scores by geography and population characteristics
  • Compare indicators across levels of remoteness
  • Examine gradients in socio-economic and demographic variables

3. Visualize Accessibility and Inequality

Engage with interactive mapping tools that allow you to:

  • View CARI+ scores across Canada at the small-area (DA) level
  • Compare accessibility across multiple service types
  • Explore bivariate maps combining accessibility with deprivation and marginalization indices

4. Download Data for Your Own Work

All CARI+ datasets are available for download Borealis, supporting:

  • Academic research
  • Policy analysis
  • Planning and service delivery applications