Smaller cities and their surrounding county environs have populations between 300,000 and 400,000.

Rural places are communities of less than 10,000 residents with population densities of less than 150 per km². Remote places are typically removed from urban centres by 200 miles or more (Health Canada’s Rural Health Initiative definitions).

Ontarian and Californian sampling frames were selected for the high quality of their cancer registry databases as well as for their representation of diverse Canadian and American places.