Canadian Postal Code^OM Database

Each edition offers different levels of data depth:

• Standard ($169.95/yr): 8 core data fields including Postal Code, city, province, area codes, latitude/longitude coordinates, and record type classification. Perfect for address validation and basic postal code lookups.
• Deluxe ($279.95/yr): 15 data fields adding province full names, time zones, DST flags, elevation, and FSA-level Statistics Canada Census demographics (population and dwellings). Ideal for marketing analysis and demographic research.
• Business ($499.95/yr): 44+ data fields with complete PCCF Census linkage, 17 supplemental tables including municipality cross-references, street supplements, Federal Electoral Districts, and comprehensive Census geography (CMA, CD, CSD, DA, CT, ER, PC). Best for enterprise applications, GIS analysis, and comprehensive demographic research.

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Yes! You can upgrade at any time by simply paying the price difference. Your subscription end date remains the same, and you'll immediately get access to the additional data fields and supplemental tables.

For example, if you purchased Standard and want to upgrade to Business, you'd pay $330 (the difference between $499.95 and $169.95), and your 12-month update period stays unchanged. This is accessible directly from your Account Homepage. It will list all of your subscriptions and offer an immediate upgrade option. No waiting, the upgrade is instantaneous. Contact us if you have any further questions.

Every purchase includes 12 months of monthly updates at no additional cost. Each month, we sync with Canada Post updates and release a fresh version of the database around the 15th of the month. We send out a monthly email notice to all active subscribers announcing the new release.

Access your updates two ways:

• Manual Download: Log into your account and download the latest version anytime
• Automated FTP: We'll set up free FTP/SFTP/FTPS access so you can automate monthly imports

After 12 months, you keep all the data you've downloaded. Renewal is only needed if you want to continue receiving monthly updates.

We recommend that automated FTP transfers be scheduled for the 20th of the month, just in case of a delay. We have not missed publishing around the 15th in many years, but occasionally there are re-publications to correct something that missed our review. Part of our 3-step accuracy verification process. Automating on the 20th of the month ensures any corrections are captured without reprocessing.

You need a redistribution license if:

• You're including our Postal Code data in a product you sell or distribute to others
• You're embedding the data in software, mobile apps, or SaaS applications
• Your end users will receive copies of the database (even partial extracts)
• Examples: store locators, shipping calculators, address lookup tools, demographic analysis software

You DON'T need a redistribution license if:

• The data stays within your organization for internal use only
• You're using it for your own business operations, analytics, or research
• Your application queries your own database without giving users direct access to the Postal Code data

Important note about Canada Post: "Postal Code" is an official mark (OM) of Canada Post Corporation. Our redistribution license covers the use of our compiled database and includes proper Canada Post attribution requirements. Redistribution licenses are priced based on your end-user count and are royalty-free (no per-use fees).

Still not sure? Contact us with a brief description of your use case, and we'll help you determine the right license type. We're here to make it simple, not complicated.

Every edition includes three formats at no extra cost:

• CSV (Comma-Separated Values): Universal format that works with virtually any application, database, or programming language. Perfect for custom imports and automation.
• Microsoft Access (.MDB): Ready-to-use database file. Open it in Access and start querying immediately. Includes proper field types and indexing.
• Microsoft Excel (.XLS): Multiple Excel workbooks for easy exploration and analysis. Great for quick lookups and business intelligence tools.

Note: Unlike our U.S. ZIP Code Database, SQL import scripts are not available for the Canadian Postal Code Database. However, the CSV format imports easily into MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and other database systems using their native import tools.

All formats are included with every purchase and available for download immediately after checkout.

Yes! All three editions include latitude and longitude coordinates for approximately 99% of Canadian Postal Codes. These coordinates allow you to:

• Plot Postal Codes on maps (Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, etc.)
• Calculate distances between locations
• Perform radius searches ("find all Postal Codes within 10km")
• Integrate with GIS systems and spatial analysis tools
• Build store locators and territory management applications

Coordinate precision: Coordinates represent the approximate center point of each Postal Code's delivery area, typically accurate to within a few hundred meters for urban areas. See our FAQ on coordinate accuracy for more details.

Bonus: Every purchase includes our free Radius Finder desktop application for instant distance calculations and radius searches with no internet connection required.

We maintain 99.9% accuracy through a rigorous three-step verification process:

1. Source data validation: We license official Postal Code data directly from Canada Post Corporation, ensuring we start with authoritative, up-to-date information.
2. Automated verification: Our systems cross-reference Canada Post updates with Statistics Canada Census data and perform consistency checks across all data fields.
3. Manual review: Our team manually reviews flagged records and customer-reported discrepancies before each monthly release.

Monthly updates: We sync with Canada Post's monthly releases (typically around the 15th), capturing new Postal Codes, retirements, and boundary changes. This ensures your database stays current with real-world addressing changes.

What "99.9% accuracy" means: For Postal Code assignments, city/province mappings, and core geographic data. Coordinate accuracy varies (see separate FAQ). Census demographics reflect Statistics Canada's most recent official data (2021 Census for current release).

Found an error? Report it to us. We investigate every claim and issue corrections in the next monthly update when verified.

Yes, for Postal Code-level validation. Our database is excellent for:

• Postal Code validation: Verify that a Postal Code exists and is currently active
• City/Province lookups: Confirm the correct city and province for a given Postal Code
• Geographic validation: Check if a Postal Code/city/province combination is valid
• Auto-complete: Populate city and province fields automatically when users enter a Postal Code
• Data cleanup: Standardize existing address databases by correcting city names and province codes

Limitations for full civic address validation:

Due to Canada Post licensing restrictions, we cannot provide street number ranges (e.g., "100-199 Main St"). This means our database can tell you that a Postal Code is associated with "Main Street" but cannot validate specific street numbers or suite numbers.

For complete address validation including street numbers: You'll need Canada Post's official Address Lookup File (CANADA.ADD) or a third-party address validation API service. Our database complements these services by providing the demographic, geographic, and Census data that Canada Post doesn't include.

Bottom line: Perfect for Postal Code validation, geographic lookups, and data enrichment. Not suitable as a standalone solution for full civic address validation with street number verification.

Census data varies by edition, all sourced from Statistics Canada 2021 Census:

Deluxe Edition:

• FSA-level demographics: Population and dwelling counts aggregated at the Forward Sortation Area level (first 3 characters of Postal Code)
• Example: All Postal Codes starting with "K1A" share the same population/dwelling statistics

Business Edition:

• Complete PCCF integration: Links every Postal Code to Statistics Canada's Postal Code Conversion File geography
• Census Metropolitan Area (CMA): Major urban centers like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver
• Census Division (CD): Roughly equivalent to counties or regional municipalities
• Census Subdivision (CSD): Cities, towns, villages, and municipalities
• Dissemination Area (DA): Small neighborhood-level areas (400-700 people)
• Census Tract (CT): Stable neighborhood areas in large urban centers
• Economic Region (ER): Groupings of Census Divisions with similar economic characteristics
• Population Centre (PC): Urban core classifications
• Federal Electoral Districts (FED): Current federal riding boundaries

Each geographic linkage includes both the unique identifier (UID) and the official name, allowing you to join with detailed Census tables for demographics, income, housing, education, and more.

Note: The Business edition's PCCF linkage is the key to unlocking comprehensive demographic analysis. While we provide the geographic connections, you can pair these with Statistics Canada's free Census Profile tables to access thousands of demographic variables.

Postal Code data: Updated monthly around the 15th of each month, synchronized with Canada Post's official releases. New Postal Codes, retirements, and geographic changes are reflected within days of Canada Post's publication.

Census demographic data: Based on Statistics Canada's 2021 Census (most recent comprehensive census). The next Census will be conducted in 2026, with results typically released 12-18 months later.

Geographic boundaries: Federal Electoral District boundaries reflect the most recent redistribution. Census geography (CMAs, CDs, CSDs, DAs, CTs) follows Statistics Canada's 2021 definitions and remains stable between census cycles.

What changes monthly:

• New Postal Codes added as Canada Post assigns them
• Retired Postal Codes removed from active service
• City name corrections and official name changes
• Coordinate refinements based on validation
• PCCF linkage updates when Statistics Canada revises geographic assignments

Your purchase includes 12 months of these updates, ensuring you always have access to the most current Postal Code information available.

Absolutely! All of our licenses (Standard, Deluxe, and Business) include full commercial use rights for internal business operations.

Regular licenses allow you to:

• Use the data for your business operations, analytics, and research
• Build internal tools and applications for your company
• Perform demographic analysis and market research
• Calculate shipping costs, delivery zones, and logistics planning
• Create sales territories and regional analysis
• Support customer service and CRM applications

If you're distributing the data to others (embedding in software, SaaS applications, mobile apps, or products you sell), you'll need a redistribution license. See our redistribution FAQ for details.

License tiers: Choose the user count that matches your organization size (1-5 users, 6-50 users, or 51+ users for enterprise). The license covers everyone in your organization who needs access to the database.

Simple: 30-day, no-questions-asked, 100% money-back guarantee.

If our Canadian Postal Code Database doesn't meet your needs for any reason, just contact us within 30 days of purchase for a full refund. No hassle, no hoops to jump through.

Why we can offer this: We've been doing this for 23 years and have served over 500 Fortune 500 companies. We're confident our data quality and customer service will exceed your expectations. The handful of refunds we process each year are typically due to customers realizing they need a different product (like full address validation) rather than data quality issues.

What happens to the data? If you request a refund, we ask that you delete any downloaded files from your systems. We operate on trust—we're not going to hunt you down or install DRM. We just want happy customers.

After 30 days? Refunds aren't available, but we're always here to help troubleshoot issues, answer questions, or work with you if there's a data quality concern. Our goal is your success, not your money.

FSA stands for Forward Sortation Area—the first three characters of a Canadian Postal Code (e.g., the "K1A" in "K1A 0B1").

Understanding the structure:

• Full Postal Code: K1A 0B1 (6 characters: letter-number-letter space number-letter-number)
• FSA (first 3): K1A (identifies a geographic region, like a neighborhood or small town)
• LDU (last 3): 0B1 (Local Delivery Unit—identifies a specific block, building, or rural route)

For Americans: A helpful analogy:

• FSA (K1A) ˜ U.S. ZIP Code (90210)—Defines a general geographic area
• Full Postal Code (K1A 0B1) ˜ U.S. ZIP+4 (90210-1234)—Pinpoints a specific delivery point

Why FSA matters: Statistics Canada Census data is often aggregated at the FSA level. This means population and dwelling counts in our Deluxe edition represent everyone in the FSA, not just one specific Postal Code. The Business edition's PCCF linkage provides more granular Census geography (Dissemination Areas, Census Tracts) for finer demographic analysis.

Coverage: Canada has approximately 1,620 FSAs covering all provinces and territories. Our database includes all 892,960+ full Postal Codes within these FSAs.

Yes! Our database includes proper French characters, accents, and bilingual naming where applicable:

What's included:

• Accented characters: City names, street names, and municipality names preserve French accents (é, è, ê, ë, à, â, ç, î, ï, ô, ù, û, ü)
• French province names: Both English and French names available (e.g., "Quebec" and "Québec")
• Proper capitalization: Mixed-case fields maintain correct French and English capitalization conventions
• Business edition bonus: The Accent Supplement table maps accented to unaccented variations for flexible searching

Technical details: All text fields use UTF-8 character encoding, ensuring French characters display correctly in modern applications, databases, and programming languages. No special configuration needed—just import and use.

Examples:

• City: Montréal (not Montreal)
• Municipality: Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean
• Street: Rue Saint-François

Census geography: Federal Electoral District names and Census names include both English and French official names where applicable, sourced directly from Statistics Canada's bilingual standards.

The honest answer: Canada Post does not release official latitude/longitude coordinates for Postal Codes. Canada Post considers precise geocoding data proprietary.

Our solution: We use crowd-sourced and verified coordinates compiled from multiple sources including:

• Statistics Canada PCCF (Postal Code Conversion File) representative points
• Municipal address databases
• OpenStreetMap community contributions
• Customer-reported corrections and validations

What this means for accuracy:

• ~99% coverage: Nearly all Postal Codes have coordinates
• Urban areas: Typically accurate to within a few hundred meters (suitable for most business applications)
• Rural areas: May represent a broader area center point rather than a specific address
• New Postal Codes: Initial coordinates refined over time as we receive validation data

Continuous improvement: We update and refine coordinates monthly based on user feedback and new validation sources. If you discover inaccurate coordinates, report them to us and we'll investigate and correct them in the next update.

Why not buy "perfect" coordinates? Hyper-accurate, commercially licensed geocoding data exists but costs significantly more (often 10-20x our pricing). Our approach balances accuracy with affordability—good enough for radius searches, mapping, and territory analysis while keeping the database accessible to small businesses and developers.

Bottom line: Our coordinates work well for store locators, territory mapping, distance calculations, and demographic analysis. If you need sub-meter precision for specialized GIS applications, consider pairing our data with a commercial geocoding service.

PCCF (Postal Code Conversion File) is Statistics Canada's official linkage between Postal Codes and Census geography. It's the key to unlocking comprehensive demographic analysis.

What PCCF integration gives you:

Every Postal Code in our Business edition connects to multiple layers of Census geography:

• Census Metropolitan Areas (CMA): Major urban centers (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, etc.)
• Census Divisions (CD): Regional municipalities and counties
• Census Subdivisions (CSD): Cities, towns, villages—the actual municipalities
• Dissemination Areas (DA): Small, stable neighborhood areas (400-700 people)—the building blocks of Census data
• Census Tracts (CT): Larger neighborhoods in urban areas, designed for demographic trend analysis
• Federal Electoral Districts (FED): Current federal riding boundaries for political analysis
• Economic Regions (ER): Groups of divisions with similar economic characteristics
• Population Centres (PC): Urban core classifications (urban, rural, population center type)

Why this matters: Statistics Canada publishes thousands of demographic variables (income, education, housing, employment, language, immigration, etc.) organized by these geographic areas. With PCCF linkage, you can:

• Join Postal Codes to detailed Census Profile data
• Analyze demographics at the neighborhood level (DA), not just FSA
• Compare areas using consistent Census boundaries
• Track demographic changes over multiple census cycles
• Build sophisticated market segmentation and targeting models

Business edition advantage: PCCF integration is only available in our Business edition. Standard and Deluxe editions include basic FSA-level demographics, but the Business edition gives you the geographic keys to Statistics Canada's entire Census data warehouse.

Where to get Census data: Statistics Canada provides free Census Profile tables on their website. Pair their demographic data with our Business edition's PCCF linkage for powerful demographic analysis without expensive data subscriptions.

Yes! With the included latitude/longitude coordinates, you can calculate straight-line distances using standard formulas:

• Haversine formula: Great-circle distance (most common, accurate for most use cases)
• Vincenty formula: Higher precision for geodesic distance calculations

Implementation options:

• Database functions: Most databases have built-in spatial functions (MySQL's ST_Distance_Sphere(), PostgreSQL's PostGIS)
• Programming libraries: Available for all major languages (Python's geopy, JavaScript's Turf.js, PHP's geodist, etc.)
• FREE Radius Finder Application: Included with every purchase! Desktop application works offline with no expiration. Handles both U.S. ZIP Codes and Canadian Postal Codes. Also available as an online tool in your account.

Performance: With proper database indexing, radius searches across all 892,960 Canadian Postal Codes complete in under a second on modern hardware. Our Radius Finder application is optimized for instant results.

Common use cases:

• Store locators ("find nearest locations to customer's Postal Code")
• Delivery zone pricing ("calculate shipping cost based on distance")
• Sales territory management ("assign accounts within 50km radius")
• Service area coverage ("show all customers within our coverage area")
• Market analysis ("identify demographics within target radius")

Important note: Calculated distances are "as the crow flies" (straight-line), not driving distances. For routing applications requiring turn-by-turn directions, you'll need a routing engine like OSRM, GraphHopper, or Google Maps Directions API.

We offer two update delivery methods for your convenience:

1. Automated FTP/SFTP/FTPS (Recommended for production):

• Free access provided to all customers
• Files published around the 15th of each month
• Set up scheduled tasks/cron jobs to download and import automatically
• Best practice: Schedule imports for the 20th of the month to allow time for any republications (rare, but it happens)

2. Manual download from your account:

• Log in anytime at your account homepage to download the latest version
• Ideal for development environments or occasional updates

Update file options:

• Full database files: Complete dataset in CSV, Excel, and Access formats

Update strategy recommendations:

• Full replacement method (recommended): Most customers replace the entire table monthly. Simplest approach with lowest risk of sync errors.
• Zero-downtime updates: Use database table swapping techniques (e.g., RENAME TABLE old_postalcodes TO backup_postalcodes, new_postalcodes TO active_postalcodes) for production environments.
• Always keep backups: Retain at least the previous month's data before importing new updates.

Import tips: Since we don't provide SQL scripts for Canadian data, use your database's native CSV import tools (MySQL's LOAD DATA INFILE, PostgreSQL's COPY, SQL Server's BULK INSERT). The CSV format is standardized and imports cleanly into all major databases.