PSYTE HD® Canada
The PSYTE HD® geodemographic segmentation system classifies Canadian neighbourhoods into mutually exclusive lifestyle groups—or ‘clusters’ based on select geodemographic metrics, location, and indicators of consumer and lifestyle behaviour.
PSYTE HD Canada is fundamentally a geo-demographic cluster system. Geo-demographic cluster systems, in contrast to household-based systems or hybrid systems, use the smallest area for which census data are published – in Canada, the census dissemination area – as a de facto neighbourhood base. Nevertheless, diversity within dissemination areas as “neighbourhoods” exists and will likely increase. Users will find, however, that PSYTE HD Canada captures much of that diversity and still provides a sound basis for sensible market segmentation strategies.
The basic assumption of clustering is that people with similar characteristics, preferences, and consumer behaviors tend to live in like neighbourhoods. However, as Canadian society changes and neighbourhoods evolve, cultural and economic diversity increases. The extent of diversity—whether socio-economic, ethnic, cultural, lifestyle, life-stage, or other dimension—is such that the new PSYTE HD Canada takes into account unprecedented levels of “within neighbourhood” differences as well as increased diversity overall. Nevertheless, users should discover that the fundamental drivers of consumer behaviors and lifestyles within each cluster are substantially similar.
PSYTE HD - Canadian Neighbourhoods
There are eight settlement context levels as noted in the following chart, which shows the distribution of “Canadian Elite” households across the settlement context schema:
One important implication of the greater analytical attention paid to settlement context is the allowance for a distribution of contexts within a single PSYTE HD Canada cluster. In the past, each cluster was given a single settlement context assignment. With PSYTE HD Canada, in contrast, the set of dissemination areas belonging to each cluster may be distributed across several settlement contexts. One key advantage of this approach is that consumer households in each cluster can be further divided by one or more settlement context levels to provide more focus to the end-user analysis.
A second advantage of this approach to settlement context is the ability of analysts to better visualize the dynamic nature of human settlements. Just as the earliest suburbs arose from the city environs of the last century, so new suburbs, exurbs, and mid-sized cities grow and extend their influence within a micro-region and beyond. Over time, as commuting patterns and employment hubs form more complex networks, the nature and extent of commercial activity evolves.
PSYTE HD - Clusters
This database breaks the population down to 59 distinct clusters. The clustering process starts with the grouping of DA’s into 300 mini-clusters or “atoms” based on key demographic themes or dimensions such as: age, dwelling type, family structure, education, employment characteristics, ethnicity, income, and mode of travel to work. The initial phase involves a sophisticated clustering algorithm which maximizes the similarities of DA’s within each atom while simultaneously maximizing the differences among DA’s across the atoms. Thus, the atoms represent the fundamental geo-demographic structure of Canada whereby each atom contains DA’s that are similar with respect to principal characteristics of demography and areal situation. The atoms become the key building blocks for the final geo-demographic clusters.
For more information about the clustering process, read the
PSYTE HD Methodology Statement...
Pricing
Prices shown are in Canadian Dollars
| Canada | Atlantic Canada | Western Canada | Large Province (ON, QC) | Medium Province (BC,AB, MB) | Small Province (SK, NB, NS, PE, NF) | |
| DA Level & Higher† | $27,500. | $11,000. | $11,000. | $11,000. | $6,875. | $2,200. |
| FSA or Census Tract | $11,000. | $4,400. | $4,400. | $4,400. | $2,750. | $2,200. |
†Includes FSA level data
