Study: Concerns and precautions taken in the Canadian North during the pandemic
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Released: 2020-07-06
As of late June 2020, a handful of COVID-19 cases had been reported in Yukon and the Northwest Territories, and none had been reported in Nunavut. While participants from Yukon and the Northwest Territories shared similar levels of concern surrounding the pandemic and its social and economic consequences compared with those living in the Canadian South, participants in Nunavut held elevated levels of health and social concerns, according to recent crowdsourcing data.
In April, one-quarter million Canadians shared their views about the COVID-19 pandemic, including almost 2,000 people who were living in the territories—for the most part, in the three major northern centres of Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit.
A new study, "Concerns and precautions taken in the Canadian North during the pandemic," looks at the results of the crowdsourcing survey and provides additional context through reference to earlier studies to better understand life during the early stages of the pandemic in Canada's far north.
A crowdsourcing survey is not a probabilistic survey and so cannot be used to generate conclusions about the overall population living in the territories. Crowdsourcing data, however, represent a unique opportunity to give a sense of how people in the Canadian North reacted as the pandemic unfolded.
Participants from Nunavut are more concerned about the consequences of the pandemic on their own health
Participants living in the North were generally as concerned as Canadians in the South about the health consequences of the pandemic—including consequences on their own health.
In Nunavut, almost half of the participants reported that they were "very" or "extremely" concerned about their own health (46%) compared with one-third of respondents in Yukon (33%). The level of concern in the Northwest Territories (39%) was similar to the Canadian average of 40%. Accessing health care services can be a challenge in the North, particularly in Nunavut, which may explain why participants from this region expressed a higher degree of health-related concerns.
The study also examined if participants living in the three territories were more likely to report social and economic concerns related to the pandemic, and if they took precautions to protect themselves against the pandemic, such as physical distancing measures.
Note to readers
Data in this release are from Statistics Canada's crowdsourcing initiative Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians: Data Collection Series. The crowdsourcing questionnaire collects data on the current economic and social situation, as well as on people's physical and mental health, to effectively assess the needs of communities and implement suitable support measures during and after the pandemic. This alternative method of collecting information can be used to supplement data obtained from more traditional sources, particularly due to its relatively low implementation cost and ability to increase the granularity of data in a timely manner. Readers should note that unlike other surveys conducted by Statistics Canada, crowdsourcing data are not collected under a design using a probability-based sampling. As a result, the findings reported in this study cannot be applied to the overall Canadian population. Over the next few weeks, new crowdsourcing initiatives will be launched to get timely information about other important issues. Canadians are invited to keep coming to the Statistics Canada website to participate.
Products
The study "Concerns and precautions taken in the Canadian North during the pandemic" is now available as part of the series StatCan COVID-19: Data to Insights for a Better Canada (45280001).
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).
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