Location

Status: This standard was approved as a departmental standard on February 21, 2018.

Definition

Location refers to the lowest level of the Business Register statistical hierarchy. The location, as a statistical unit, is defined as a production unit at a single geographical location at which or from which economic activity is conducted and for which, at a minimum, employment data are available.

Usage

All active enterprises operating in Canada -- including businesses, organizations or partnerships with a Business Number registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), and also any sole proprietors reporting personal business income -- have at least one location on the Business Register. Locations belonging to enterprises with no payroll employees are included as zero-employee units. (Self-employed businesses owners not drawing a salary are not counted as employees).

Conformity to relevant internationally recognized standards

This standard is compatible with the definition of Local Unit presented in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) "Guidelines on Statistical Business Registers", 2015. In the UNECE definition, local unit is considered as one of the "Other statistical units", and not one of the main statistical units. The UNECE definition is considered with the physical location of the production activity rather than the data it can provide. The "Guidelines on Statistical Business Registers" provides the following definition for local unit (location):

Local unit - an enterprise or a part of an enterprise (for example, a workshop, factory, warehouse, office, mine or depot) that engages in productive activity at or from one location (Source: Guidelines onStatistical Business Registers, 2015. Page 7).

The "System of National Accounts 2008", 2009, provides a similar definition for local unit, with no further clarification of the data units potentially provide. This standard, while similar to the UNECE and SNA definitions, expands on them to provide further detail of the information these units can provide.

Relation to previous version

• Location February 21, 2018 to current

  This standard replaces the previous standard for location. The previous standard did not situate location within the Business Register statistical hierarchy. The current standard changes this, and defines location in terms of its placement within the Business Register statistical hierarchy.

• Location July 15, 1998 to February 20, 2018

  This was the departmental standard from July 15, 1998 to February 20, 2018.