Data
Both downloadable layers are cut from one address base. This section documents what that base contains, where it comes from, and how it changes between releases.
The two grains at launch
Address points. One record per civic address, positioned where its source placed it. This is the grain you geocode against and the grain everything else is derived from.
Postal code points. One point per postal code, computed from the addresses carrying that code. Not a boundary, not a supplied centroid — a representative point of the addresses that actually exist under it, with the count of those addresses attached so you can tell a dense urban code from a rural route.
Parcels are shown on the catalogue map as context but are not downloadable at launch.
What a record is
An address record is an assertion that a civic address exists at a location, made by a source that had the authority to say so, on a date. It is not a claim that a building is occupied, that a dwelling unit is habitable, or that anyone lives there. Those are separate questions and the data does not answer them.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. A parcel with a permit and no structure has an address. A demolished house keeps its address until the municipality retires it. Counting addresses and counting households will give you different numbers, and the gap between them is not error.
What derived postal points are, and are not
They are the position of the addresses sharing a code. That is a useful thing and a narrow one.
They are not a postal boundary. They are not a delivery route. They are not authoritative — a code that exists but has no matched addresses in the register produces no point at all, and its absence is visible rather than silently interpolated.
Deriving them from addresses means they inherit the address base’s coverage. Where addresses are thin, postal points are thin in the same places, and the address count on each record tells you which.
Reading the rest of this section
- The schema reference lists every column in both layers.
- Sources and lineage covers where records originate and precedence when sources disagree.
- The change log records what moved between releases.
- Validation reports explains the quality figures shipped with every release.