TechnicalGIS

Canada GIS data sources

Region
Northern America
ISO 3166
CA · CAN
Sources
23
Themes
15
Last verified

Where to download GIS data for Canada: 23 sources across 15 themes, led by Natural Resources Canada and Statistics Canada. 12 offer vector downloads such as Shapefile, GeoPackage or GeoJSON, 3 cover elevation including LiDAR. 19 are under an open licence. Every link was last checked on 18 Oct 2026.

Country atlases

National and OpenStreetMap sources for Canada

Boundaries & admin 3

Administrative boundary data for every country

  • Census boundary files (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Statistics Canada

    2021 Census cartographic and digital boundary files (provinces to dissemination blocks) for joining to census profile tables.

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Population
    Licence
    Statistics Canada Open Licence
    Formats
    Shapefile, GML
    Link
    www12.statcan.gc.ca

    Not verified (site blocks automated checks) · 18 Oct 2026 (no response)

  • GEO.ca (Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure) (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Natural Resources Canada

    National discovery portal of the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure, searching federal, provincial and municipal geospatial data and services.

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Elevation / DEM
    • Imagery
    • Hydrology
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Link
    geo.ca

    Verified

  • geoBoundaries administrative boundaries (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    William & Mary geoLab

    JSON API listing every available admin level with direct download links.

    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    Varies (open; see metadata)
    Formats
    GeoJSON, Shapefile, TopoJSON
    Link
    geoboundaries.org

    Verified

Elevation / DEM 1

Free DEM, LiDAR and elevation data for every country

Land cover 1

Land cover datasets for every country

  • 2020 Land Cover of Canada (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Natural Resources Canada / Canada Centre for Remote Sensing

    30 m national land cover map with 15 classes, aligned with the North American Land Change Monitoring System.

    • Land cover
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    open.canada.ca

    Verified

Buildings 1

Building footprint data for every country

  • Canadian Building Footprints (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Microsoft

    About 12 million machine-learned building footprints, packaged by province and territory.

    • Buildings
    Licence
    ODbL 1.0
    Formats
    GeoJSON
    Link
    github.com

    Verified

Census & statistics 1

Census and statistics data for every country

  • Statistics Canada (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Statistics Canada

    National statistical office (from the UN Statistics Division directory).

    • Census & statistics
    • Population
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Link
    statcan.gc.ca

    Verified

Addresses & cadastre 2

Address and cadastral data for every country

  • Open Database of Addresses (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Statistics Canada

    • Addresses & cadastre
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Formats
    CSV
    Link
    statcan.gc.ca

    Verified

  • Canada Lands Survey System (opens in a new tab)

    Web viewer Cost: Free

    Natural Resources Canada – Surveyor General Branch · Canada Lands

    Survey plans and parcel fabric for Canada Lands such as First Nations reserves, national parks and the northern territories.

    • Addresses & cadastre
    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Formats
    Shapefile, KML, WMS
    Link
    clss.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca

    Verified

Transport 3

Road, rail and transport data for every country

  • CanVec topographic data (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Natural Resources Canada

    Multi-scale (1:50,000 to 1:15 million) topographic vector data by theme: transport, hydrography, land features, buildings and more.

    • Transport
    • Hydrology
    • Land cover
    • Buildings
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Formats
    Shapefile, File Geodatabase, GeoPackage, WMS
    Link
    open.canada.ca

    Verified

  • National Road Network (NRN) (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Statistics Canada / Natural Resources Canada

    Road centrelines with names, classes and address ranges, by province and territory.

    • Transport
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Formats
    GeoPackage, Shapefile, File Geodatabase
    Link
    open.canada.ca

    Verified

  • OpenStreetMap extract – Canada (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Geofabrik / OpenStreetMap contributors

    Daily OSM extract.

    • Transport
    • Boundaries & admin
    • Hydrology
    Licence
    ODbL 1.0
    Formats
    PBF, Shapefile
    Link
    download.geofabrik.de

    Verified

Hydrology 1

River, lake and hydrology data for every country

  • National Hydro Network (NHN) (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Natural Resources Canada

    1:50,000-scale lakes, rivers, watercourses and drainage network by work unit.

    • Hydrology
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Formats
    GeoPackage, Shapefile, File Geodatabase
    Link
    open.canada.ca

    Verified

Climate & weather 2

Climate and weather data for every country

  • Historical Climate Data (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Environment and Climate Change Canada

    Hourly, daily and monthly station observations and climate normals; bulk access through the MSC GeoMet API.

    • Climate & weather
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Formats
    CSV
    Link
    climate.weather.gc.ca

    Verified

  • MSC GeoMet / OGC API (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    Meteorological Service of Canada

    OGC API access to climate station data, hydrometric observations and weather model layers.

    • Climate & weather
    • Hydrology
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Formats
    GeoJSON, CSV, WMS, API
    Link
    api.weather.gc.ca

    Verified

Agriculture & soils 1

Agriculture and soil data for every country

  • Annual Crop Inventory (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

    Yearly 30 m crop type map for Canada's agricultural regions from 2009.

    • Agriculture & soils
    • Land cover
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    open.canada.ca

    Verified

Marine & coastal 2

Marine, coastal and bathymetry data for every country

  • NONNA non-navigational bathymetric data (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Canadian Hydrographic Service

    Gridded 10 m and 100 m bathymetry compiled from CHS surveys; not for navigation.

    • Marine & coastal
    • Elevation / DEM
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, CSV
    Link
    open.canada.ca

    Verified

  • Canadian Hydrographic Service nautical charts (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Mixed

    Fisheries and Oceans Canada

    Official paper and electronic navigational charts, tides and water levels; ENCs are sold through distributors.

    • Marine & coastal
    Licence
    Free with registration; see terms
    Formats
    S-57, PDF
    Link
    charts.gc.ca

    Verified

Environment 1

Environmental and protected area data for every country

Open data portal 4

Open geospatial data portals for every country

  • Open Maps (Open Government Portal) (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Government of Canada

    Federal geospatial collection of the Open Government Portal, including NRCan's former GeoGratis products, with WMS/ESRI REST services.

    • Open data portal
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Canada
    Link
    search.open.canada.ca

    Verified

  • BC Data Catalogue (GeoBC) (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Government of British Columbia · British Columbia

    Province-wide geospatial holdings including TRIM base mapping, parcel fabric, forest inventory and lidar (LidarBC).

    • Open data portal
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – British Columbia (varies)
    Formats
    Shapefile, File Geodatabase, WMS, WFS
    Link
    catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca

    Verified

  • Ontario GeoHub (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Government of Ontario – Land Information Ontario · Ontario

    Provincial open geospatial data such as Ontario Hydro Network, road network, wetlands and orthoimagery indexes.

    • Open data portal
    Licence
    Open Government Licence – Ontario
    Formats
    Shapefile, File Geodatabase, GeoJSON, API
    Link
    geohub.lio.gov.on.ca

    Verified

  • Données Québec (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Gouvernement du Québec · Québec

    Québec's open data portal including Adresses Québec, the AQréseau road network, lidar-derived DEMs and ecoforest maps.

    • Open data portal
    Licence
    Varies (mostly CC BY 4.0)
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoJSON, GeoPackage, WMS
    Link
    donneesquebec.ca

    Verified

Global datasets that cover Canada

Worldwide and continental layers that include Canada, useful where national data is missing, restricted or inconsistent across borders.

Boundaries & admin
Elevation / DEM
Imagery
Land cover
Buildings
Population
Census & statistics
Addresses & cadastre
Transport
Hydrology
Climate & weather
Agriculture & soils
Marine & coastal
Environment
Open data portal

Browse all 127 global datasets

Tutorials that use this kind of data

Neighbouring countries