Indicator 11.3.1 Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate

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

Target 11.3: By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries

Indicator 11.3.1: Ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate

This indicator is defined as the ratio of land consumption rate to population growth rate.

Land consumption rate is the rate at which urbanized land or land occupied by a city/urban area changes during a period of time (usually one year), expressed as a percentage of the land occupied by the city/urban area at the start of that time.

Population growth rate is the change of a population in a defined area (country, city, etc) during a period, usually one year, expressed as a percentage of the population at the start of that period. It reflects the number of births and deaths during a period and the number of people migrating to and from the focus area. In SDG 11.3.1, this is computed at the area defined as urban/city.

Population data are from 2011 and 2021. Land use data are from 2010 and 2020.

Only cities with a population of 100,000 or more in 2011 and/or 2021 are included.

Contiguously settled area (CSA) boundaries for 2020 were used as the city/urban area boundaries. CSA boundaries were developed by Statistics Canada to represent the physical footprint of urban areas on the Earth’s surface and are based on land cover data. The documentation explaining the methodology for creating CSAs can be found here: (Contiguously Settled Areas: Boundaries and User Documentation). It should be noted that some CSAs may be associated with two or more adjacent population centres whose settled area footprints are attached.

For all cities, Statistics Canada Census of Population block face points were used for population counts (Census geography), and the 30 m resolution Land Use Time Series v4 produced by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada was used for built-up area (AAFC Land Use).