PRIZM®
PRIZM®
Canada’s leading segmentation system with a true 360° view of your customers and markets
PRIZM® features 67 segments that capture current demographics, lifestyles and values in Canada. Developed using dozens of authoritative data sources, PRIZM® gives you access to over 40,000 data points and can be combined with your own customer data.
The latest edition of PRIZM® captures real-world, dynamic shifts in neighbourhoods across Canada, driven by immigration, internal migration and an aging population. Whether you're a business, non-profit or government agency, PRIZM® empowers you to understand your audience with precision and activate your media strategies with confidence.
PRIZM® is a registered trademark of Claritas, LLC.
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PRIZM® Segment Explorer
Which PRIZM® segment do you belong to? Try our PRIZM® Segment Explorer. It lets you enter any postal code in Canada to explore segments in different neighbourhoods.
Understand your customers
Identify who your best customers are, how they think, what drives them and how to best reach them.
Identify top markets
Pinpoint high-potential neighbourhoods and new market opportunities.
Execute your strategy
Determine the right product strategy, media mix and messaging to effectively reach your customers.
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See Canada Through a Whole New PRIZM
Now in its fourth generation, PRIZM and the databases it connects to offer users access to more than 40,000 data points about consumers’ motivations and behaviours.
Gain a fresh perspective on Canada’s distinct markets and communities
- 67 PRIZM segments reflect the evolution of Canada’s lifestyles and increasing cultural diversity including 14 francophone segments and 16 segments with high immigrant populations.
- New segments capture social currents including the growing prominence of millennials, an increasing senior population and the rise in multigenerational households.
- Segments are classified by socio-economic, lifestage and urbanity to give marketers greater flexibility and control in identifying the best customers to target.
Answer key marketing questions about customers
- Who are they (age, wealth, diversity, education)?
- What are they like (sports, leisure, arts, spending)?
- Where do they live, work and shop?
- How do they think (psychographics, values)?
- How can they be reached (media preferences)?
Accurate, comprehensive and privacy compliant information
- PRIZM is developed by leading experts in Canadian demographics and geography at the city, provincial and regional levels.
- Access information at all levels of geography down to the postal code and dissemination area.
- Built with psychographic information to better understand the drivers behind behaviours and consumer choices.
- Follows privacy-by-design principles throughout the phases of build, design and delivery.
Find more information about the PRIZM database including metadata, release notes, technical documents and glossaries on our community site.
PRIZM case studies
Businesses, not-for-profits and government agencies all use PRIZM to analyze and engage their customers and markets.
See how we help organizations use data analytics for evidence-based decision making to improve marketing, guide high-level strategic planning and drive operational improvements.
Ready to turn data into actionable insights for your business?
Frequently Asked Questions
The exurban classification disappeared as a result of suburban sprawl absorbing the exurban landscape. In addition, a new urbanity classification, “urban fringe,” emerged in major cities between urban and suburban areas. This category captures once-suburban areas that have become more urbanized as cities expanded over the last 30 years.
PRIZM is developed in three stages: first, creating 150 detailed segments called "atoms" using demographic and socioeconomic variables; second, aggregating these atoms into 67 final segments; and third, assigning all Canadian residential postal codes to these segments.
Phase one: the development of the “atoms” requires assembling key demographic, economic and geographic factors to develop a cluster segmentation system that maximizes homogeneity with the groups and maximizes differentiation between the groups. All data used as inputs are anonymized and aggregated. No information about a household or an identifiable individual are used. Sources include Statistics Canada (Census), Equifax and TomTom.
Phase two: The “atoms” are further grouped using aggregate trends from Environics Research Social Values syndicated studies. Each segment is then defined by a series of statistical centroids that result from the clustering, testing and quality assurance.
Phase three: Machine learning algorithms and other statistical methods are used to assign the cluster to each postal code based on modeled demographic characteristics of the postal code from EA’s DemoStats. EA’s postal code DemoStats estimates are modeled from Census data, Canada Post data files and geographic factors. All data used as inputs are anonymized and aggregated.
Across the stages of the PRIZM development lifecycle, we embed the principles of privacy by design together with leading privacy-enhancing technologies to ensure there is no likelihood of identifying an individual or a household.
More Data to Choose From
Enhance your data with our privacy compliant, authoritative databases. Choose from over 60 databases including financial, demographic, segmentation and behavioural data.
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