Indicator 11.2.1 Proportion of population that has convenient access to public transport, by sex, age and persons with disabilities

Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Target 11.2: By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons

Indicator 11.2.1: Proportion of population that has convenient access to public transport

The access to public transport is considered convenient when a stop is accessible within a walking distance along the street network of 500 m from a reference point such as a home, school, work place, market, etc. to a low-capacity public transport system (e.g. bus, Bus Rapid Transit) and/or 1 km to a high-capacity system (e.g. rail, metro, ferry).

This is a proxy indicator. The UN Global metadata defines the proportion of population that has convenient access to public transport as the proportion of population that has access to a low-capacity public transit stop within 500 m and/or a high-capacity public transit stop within 1 km. However, the proportion of population that has access to a low-capacity public transit stop within 500 m or to a high-capacity public transit stop within 1 km are only available as separate statistics.

Data for some geographies may not be available for a specific reference period.

The method used to estimate the percentage of Canadians living within a distance of a public transport access point was as follows:

1. Locations of public transport stops of all kinds (bus, trolley, surface and underground rail, ferry) were obtained from the municipalities’ or the local transit authorities’ websites or directly provided by them to Statistics Canada. Complete data coverage was achieved for the municipalities constituting the 41 census metropolitan areas (CMAs). Other municipalities inside census agglomerations (CAs) and outside of CMAs and CAs were included when regularly scheduled public transit service was identified and the geospatial data was available.
2. Public transit stop locations and the Road Network File data were used to create distance and public transit carrying capacity dependent Service Areas.
3. Service area boundaries were used to estimate the population counts based on the Statistics Canada 2021 Census of population data at the blockface geographic level.
4. Counts at the blockface level were aggregated to municipal /Census Subdivision (CSD), CMA/CA, provincial/territorial and the national levels.
5. The proportion of the population within a service area for each geographic unit in scope was calculated by dividing the estimated counts by the geographic unit's total population.
6. Note that the provincial/territorial and the national aggregate totals are calculated based on the sum of values of the geographies within the scope of analysis.
7. Statistics Canada data confidentiality and rounding rules were applied to all estimates.