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I have Canadian postal code data that I would like to plot. This data is currently stored in a simple .csv file. At the moment the only other data I have is FSA data from Statistics Canada. Is there any way I can use this data, or is there other data I should have, to properly plot the postal codes from the .csv file onto a map of Canada? There may be a very simple solution to this, since I am quite new to QGIS.

UPDATE: I found this site, which has free postal code data along with latitudes and longitudes.

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    what geographical information do you have in your .csv? just postcode?
    – Mapperz ♦
    Oct 14, 2014 at 19:35
  • @Mapperz Just postal code unfortunately. Is it important that I have more information than that?
    – 114
    Oct 14, 2014 at 19:51
  • @114 I think you'll just get point data from any successful geocode - is that what you're after?
    – DPSSpatial_BoycottingGISSE
    Oct 14, 2014 at 19:56
  • @mapBaker Yes, though if you have a suggestion for a shape file to lay the information on instead of google maps that would be great!
    – 114
    Oct 14, 2014 at 20:04
  • I thought Stats Canada would have a postal code file out there somewhere... @Mapperz do you know?
    – DPSSpatial_BoycottingGISSE
    Oct 14, 2014 at 20:07

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Canada Post keeps a tight reign on its claimed copyright of Canadian postal codes. The site 'geocoder.ca' referred to in the update is one of several sites that Canada Post has dragged into the Canadian court system. Basically, Canada Post makes money selling the information. Canada Post has gone so far and trade mark the spelling 'Postal code' (note the 'c' in code is lowercase). They claim exclusive right to this phrase.

Even while Canada Stats has data at the FSA/LDU level, the public data is ONLY available at the FSA level:

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/prof/details/download-telecharger/comprehensive/comp-csv-tab-dwnld-tlchrgr.cfm?Lang=E

The same copyright is true in US that zip codes are copyright property of the US Postal Service. But, in the US the crowd sourced and other reversed engineer compilations NOT derived from the USPS source, the USPS has never (and does not expect to) claimed copyright infringement.

And again, starting with the 2000 census the US Census stopped using actual zip codes and use ZCTAs (sort like zip codes - lol).

I have my own non-USPS derived compilations which I make publicly available (CC0) at: http://www.opengeocode.org/download.php#cityzip

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