Keyword search

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of existing methods and techniques making use of personal identifiers to support record linkage. Record linkage can be loosely defined as a methodology for manipulating and / or transforming personal identifiers from individual data records from one or more operational databases and subsequently attempting to match these personal identifiers to create a composite record about an individual. Record linkage is not intended to uniquely identify individuals for operational purposes; however, it does provide probabilistic matches of varying degrees of reliability for use in statistical reporting. Techniques employed in record linkage may also be of use for investigative purposes to help narrow the field of search against existing databases when some form of personal identification information exists.

In 1999, as part of its General Social Survey program, Statistics Canada conducted a survey on victimization and public perceptions of crime and the justice system. It was the third time that the General Social Survey (GSS) had examined victimization - previous surveys were conducted in 1993 and 1988.

For the 1999 survey, interviews were conducted by telephone with approximately 26,000 people, aged 15 and older, living in the 10 provinces. Respondents were asked for their opinions concerning the level of crime in their neighbourhood, their fear of crime and their views concerning the performance of the justice system. They were also asked about their attitudes toward sentencing adult and young offenders. Respondents were randomly presented with one of four hypothetical situations for which they were asked to choose "prison" or "non-prison". Respondents who selected prison sentences were given a follow-up question that asked them whether a sentence of one year of probation and 200 hours of community work was an acceptable alternative to the prison sentence.

This Juristat examines public attitudes toward sentencing adult and young offenders. It also analyzes public attitudes toward four sectors of the justice system including, the police, the criminal courts, the prison and parole systems.

This article examines whether the education levels of graduates surpass the needs of employers, and to what extent.

This article provides an analysis of the employment and earnings patterns of recent postsecondary graduates, based on three waves of the National Graduates Surveys.

This Juristat outlines the characteristics of criminal harassment incidents as well as the characteristics of the accused and victim for 1999, and identifies trends over the past five years. (Trend data are only available for the five-year period from 1995 to 1999.) This Juristat updates a similar Juristat written in 1996 using information collected from police forces and adult criminal courts to review the charges laid and sentences imposed for cases involving criminal harassment.

There are many different types of stalkers. However, most victims of criminal harassment know their accused quite well and, in many instances, the stalker and victim were involved in a previous relationship.

Statistics Canada publishes several measures of farm income, each produced for a different purpose. This bulletin describes the concepts behind these different measures, the methods by which the measures are constructed, and the uses for which they were designed.

Canada's ports handled a record 382.0 million tonnes (Mt.) of cargo in 1999 and a record of 2.2 million TEURS (twenty-foot-equivalent units) of containers.

Third quarter 1999 operating ratios for top carriers improved by one point over the same period one year earlier to 0.93 but were unchanged in the fourth quarter (0.94). Average revenue per carrier grew by 3% in the third quarter and 4% in the fourth quarter.

This study looks at those who voluntarily work part time, as well as their reasons for doing so, their levels of work-related stress, and their job characteristics.

This Bulletin provides recent information on the performance and funding of Federal Government Expenditures on Scientific Activities, 2000-2001. The statistics presented are derived from the survey of the science and technology (S&T) activities of Federal departments and agencies. According to international convention, S&T is divided into two fields; Natural Sciences and Engineering (NSE) and Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). These fields of science are further divided into Research and Development (R&D) and Related Scientific Activities (RSA).

This publication presents information on the income, expenditure and assets of all trusteed pension funds in Canada in both the public and private sectors. Data are presented at the Canada level. The publication contains an analysis of the funds based on the size of the fund, the number of members and the type of benefit. It is a continuation of a series of reports produced since 1957. As a single pool of investment capital in Canada, these funds are surpassed in size only by the aggregate reserves held by the chartered banks.

Often identified as an emerging sector, the environment industry continues to evolve into a complex industry that offers a wide range of technologies and services aimed at protecting the environment and improving environmental quality. This paper analyses Canada's trade in environmental goods and services and compares it with the trade profile of the world's largest environmental market, the United States. What is Canada's trade balance among the different segments of the environment industry? What are the market drivers for environmental goods and services? The relevance of this research is magnified by the current focus on environmental technologies and their key sub-sectors such as climate change technologies, water and wastewater systems and hazardous waste management. The government recently identified these sectors as targeted growth areas for Canada.

The ports handled a total of 274.3 million tonnes (Mt.) of cargo. Strong increases in domestic shipments, particularly in the forest sector were sufficient to offset a decline in international shipments, which were strongly affected by a decrease in iron ore shipments to US ports.

For the Canadian bus industry as a whole, the first six months of 1999 produced marginal financial improvements over the same months of the previous year. Gross revenues excluding subsidies grew by just over one half of one percent, rising from $1.58 billion in 1998 to $1.59 billion in 1999. Expenditures decreased slightly from $2.38 billion for the first two quarters of 1998 to $2.37 billion in 1999.

This online publication presents detailed annual financial and operating statistics on the Canadian cable television industry. Operational data are published on subscribers, households passed by cable, kilometres of cable, channel capacity and program hours. Financial statistics include detailed revenue and expense accounts, balance sheet and statement of retained earnings. The preamble to the publication consists of statistical highlights, a written analysis and text tables which display a financial and operating summary of the cable television industry. Also included is a glossary of terms for the industry.

This publication analyses interprovincial and international trade flows with provincial highlights enhanced by charts, contains tables that illustrate: how trade has evolved annually from 1992 to 1998; the types of goods and services traded; and, developments of economic linkages among the provinces.

Nearly 50,000 or one in five (22%) Canadian truck drivers on the road in 1998 were independent truckers or "owner-operators". However, similar to other forms of self-employment, the net-earnings and socio-economic characteristics of owner-operators have often been ignored by researchers for reasons of analytical convenience or data limitations. New data products recently released by Statistics Canada such as the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) have the potential to fill much of this gap. The 1997 SLID cross-sectional micro-data files offer a limited but meaningful insight into the work patterns of the owner-operator population, complementing and validating well-established business surveys such as the annual Small for-hire carrier and Owner-operator Survey (SFO). The purpose of this study, through a multivariate analysis of the 1997 SLID and the 1997 SFO survey, was to compare the work patterns and backgrounds of owner-operators to company drivers (paid truck drivers employed by carriers). The study found that while drivers may choose to be self-employed to gain independence, owner-operators tend to work longer hours to meet fixed and variable costs, in return for lower after-tax earnings and a greater likelihood of high work-life stress. The analysis also found that the odds of self-employment among truckers were highest among drivers over 40 years of age with no post-secondary training.

Statistics on hotels, motels, tourist camping grounds and other types of traveller accommodation (e.g., receipts, employment, expenses, occupancy) are provided in this publication. Also included are definitions, methodology, and notes on data quality.

Sub-provincial employment dynamics uses longitudinal data to produce year-to-year changes in the number of employer businesses, employment and payrolls in Canada. Changes are shown by size of business and by business life status, which includes entry, exit, growth and decline.

Censuses of Canada, 1665 to 1871, Statistics of Canada, Volume IV was printed in Ottawa, in 1876, from the Censuses of Canada, 1870-71. This volume contains about 343 statistical tables on the social and economic conditions in Canada from the earliest settlements to Confederation and onto 1871. The results from 98 censuses are arranged in chronological order, with some explanatory notes. In most cases, there are sufficient descriptions of the individual series to enable the reader to use them without consulting the numerous basic sources referenced in the publication.

An electronic version of this historical publication is accessible on the Internet site of Statistics Canada. The Introduction is a free downloadable document in text as HTML pages for on-line viewing and Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files for printing. The statistical tables are available through E-STAT* (which allows both on-line viewing and downloading).

Richard Platek, the founding Chairman, who remained at the helm of the Journal until 1987, has provided an excellent overview of the gradual evolution of the Journal from a modest divisional to a respected departmental publication and then to an international publication of repute.

Dr. Fellegi considers the challenges facing government statistical agencies and strategies to prepare for these challenges. He first describes the environment of changing information needs and the social, economic and technological developments driving this change. He goes on to describe both internal and external elements of a strategy to meet these evolving needs. Internally, a flexible capacity for survey taking and information gathering must be developed. Externally, contacts must be developed to ensure continuing relevance of statistical programs while maintaining non-political objectivity.

Leslie Kish describes the challenges and opportunities of combining data from surveys of different populations. Examples include multinational surveys where the data from surveys of several countries are combined for comparison and analysis, as well as cumulated periodic surveys of the "same" population. He also compares and contrasts the combining of surveys with the combining of experiments.

In 1999 Statistics Sweden outlined a proposal for improved quality within the European Statistical System (ESS). The ESS comprises Eurostat and National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) associated with Eurostat. ... Basically Statistics Sweden proposed the creation of a LEG [Leadership Expert Group] on Quality].

In his paper Fritz Scheuren considers the possible uses of administrative records to enhance and improve population censuses. After reviewing previous uses of administrative records in an international context, he puts forward several proposals for research and development towards increased use of administrative records in the American statistical system.

Godambe and Thompson consider the problem of confidence intervals in survey sampling. They first review the use of estimating functions to obtain model robust pivotal quantities and associated confidence intervals, and then discuss the adaptation of this approach to the survey sampling context. Details are worked out for some more specific types of models, and an empirical comparison of this approach with more conventional methods is presented.

J.N.K. Rao gives an overview of the methods and models used for small area estimation. This is an update of his previous overview (Ghosh and Rao, 1994, Statistical Science). He first presents a general discussion of small area models, making a distinction between area level models and unit level models. He then describes the development in three main approaches for inference based on these models: EBLUP, EB and HB, gives several examples of recent applications. Finally, he presents an interesting discussion identifying the gaps and areas that require further research.

Sirken and Shimizu derive a Horvitz-Thompson estimator for population based establishment sample surveys (PBESs). A PBES is a survey of establishments where the sampling frame consists of establishments with which a preliminary sample of households or individuals has had some contact.

Jean-Claude Deville shows how to use simple tools to calculate the variance of a complex estimator using a linearization technique. The process is that of a software used at INSEE for estimation of the variance of a complex estimator. It gives a way of computing the variance of a total estimated by the simple expansion estimator. In the case of a complex statistic, the process uses a derived variable that reduces the computations to those of the simple expansion estimator. Multiple examples are given to illustrate the process.

Brewer proposes a method of weight calibration in survey sampling, called cosmetic calibration, which yields cosmetic estimators of totals, i.e. estimators that can be interpreted as both design-based and prediction based. He also discusses variance estimation and shows how the problem of negative weights can be easily and naturally handled using cosmetic calibration. Finally he compares the properties of the weights and the resulting estimators to some alternative approaches using some Australian far data.

This paper describes the issues around updating the low income cut-offs as well as Statistics Canada's findings and proposes a course of action.