Developing sharable data and tools is fundamental to CANUE’s vision. We are building a unique repository of standardized metrics of urban, suburban, and rural characteristics, along with the tools used to produce them. By focusing on national and global datasets, we are paving the way for international research collaborations.


Our data are provided by CANUE members or developed by our specialists in collaboration with the data teams. Data are freely available to academic researchers who agree to the conditions and distribution restrictions imposed by the Data Liberation Initiative and the data developers. If you are not an academic researcher, you can partner with one or more of our members based at Canadian universities.

To work with CANUE data in conjunction with individual health data, you must apply directly to the cohort or health database of interest. Some of these may charge fees to access the health data.

We are also happy to provide any data processing tools we have developed, in case you wish to duplicate or build on our metrics yourself.

World Imagery –  Source: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS User Community