The metropolitan influence zone classification, developed by researchers at Statistics Canada, classifies communities (census subdivisions) that lie outside census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations (CAs) according to the degree of influence that CMA/CAs have on them. The classification was used in this mapping project on quality of life to compare similar communities (or census subdivisions), in order to recognize inherent differences in the social and economic characteristics of different communities and differences in their geographic locations, which may have important influences on quality of life.