Keyword search

Description:

The Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the official source of monthly estimates of total employment and unemployment. Following the 2011 census, the LFS underwent a sample redesign to account for the evolution of the population and labour market characteristics, to adjust to changes in the information needs and to update the geographical information used to carry out the survey. The redesign program following the 2011 census culminated with the introduction of a new sample at the beginning of 2015. This report is a reference on the methodological aspects of the LFS, covering stratification, sampling, collection, processing, weighting, estimation, variance estimation and data quality.

Description:

This working paper presents a methodology to measure remoteness at the community level. The method takes into account some of the recent literature on the subject, as well as new computational opportunities provided by the integration of official statistics with data from non-official statistical sources. The approach that was used in the computations accounts for multiple points of access to services; it also establishes a continuum between communities with different transportation infrastructures and connectivity while at the same time retaining the information on the community transportation infrastructures in the database. In addition, a method to implement accessibility measures to selected services is also outlined and a sample of accessibility measures are computed.

Description:

The Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) serves as the highest-level governance tool for quality management at Statistics Canada. The QAF gives an overview of the quality management and risk mitigation strategies used by the Agency’s program areas. The QAF is used in conjunction with Statistics Canada management practices, such as those described in the Quality Guidelines.

Description:

These analytical products present projections of the diversity of the Canadian population. The purpose of these projections is to paint a potential portrait of the composition of Canada’s population according to different ethnocultural and language characteristics, if certain population growth scenarios were to become reality in the future. Produced using Demosim, a microsimulation model, these projections cover characteristics such as place of birth, generation status, visible minority group, religion and mother tongue.

Description:

This document briefly describes Demosim, the microsimulation population projection model, how it works as well as its methods and data sources. It is a methodological complement to the analytical products produced using Demosim.

Description:

Immigrants comprise an ever-increasing percentage of the Canadian population—at more than 20%, which is the highest percentage among the G8 countries (Statistics Canada 2013a). This figure is expected to rise to 25% to 28% by 2031, when at least one in four people living in Canada will be foreign-born (Statistics Canada 2010).

This report summarizes the linkage of the Immigrant Landing File (ILF) for all provinces and territories, excluding Quebec, to hospital data from the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD), a national database containing information about hospital inpatient and day-surgery events. A deterministic exact-matching approach was used to link data from the 1980-to-2006 ILF and from the DAD (2006/2007, 2007/2008 and 2008/2009) with the 2006 Census, which served as a “bridge” file. This was a secondary linkage in that it used linkage keys created in two previous projects (primary linkages) that separately linked the ILF and the DAD to the 2006 Census. The ILF–DAD linked data were validated by means of a representative sample of 2006 Census records containing immigrant information previously linked to the DAD.

Description:

This package was designed to help users access and manipulate the public use microdata file (PUMF – provincial) for the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS) on Canadians’ Safety (Victimization). It contains the PUMF data and describes the objectives, methodology and estimation procedures for this survey as well as guidelines for releasing estimates.

Statistics Canada collected data on the topic of Canadians’ safety (Victimization) for the sixth time in 2014. Data were previously collected in 1988 (Cycle 3), 1993 (Cycle 8), 1999 (Cycle 13), 2004 (Cycle 18) and 2009 (Cycle 23). The 2014 provincial GSS collected data from persons aged 15 years and over living in private households in Canada, excluding residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut and full time residents of institutions.

Between 2009 and 2014, the core content of the survey was revised in a number of ways, based on experience gained from earlier iterations. Some questions were revised to improve their clarity for respondents, and others were added or dropped following consultations with stakeholders from the justice sector, government and academic communities.

Description:

Changes in health status may affect not just the individuals who experience such changes, but also their family members. For example, if the main earner in a family loses his or her ability to generate income due to a health shock, it invariably affects the financial situation of the spouse and other dependents. In addition, spouses and working-age children may themselves increase or reduce their labour supply to make up for the lost income (“added worker effect”) or care for a sick family member (“caregiver effect”). Since consumption smoothing and self-insurance occur at the household level, the financial effects of health for other family members have important policy implications. To shed light on such effects, this study analyzes how one spouse’s cancer diagnosis affects the employment and earnings of the other spouse and (before-tax) total family income using administrative data from Canada.

Description: Children younger than age 18 enumerated in the 2006 Census who lived in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver were linked to published air pollution exposure land use regression models to assign exposure at the Dissemination Area level. Associations between both socioeconomic and visible minority status and exposure to ambient nitrogen dioxide among children in these three cities were examined in a series of regression models.

Description:

The data are from the Canadian Cancer Registry, with mortality follow-up through record linkage to the Canadian Vital Statistics Death Database. Increases in five-year relative survival ratios between 1992-to-1994 and 2006-to-2008 were calculated by age and sex for all leukemias combined and for each of the main types.

Description:

This package was designed to help users access and manipulate the public use microdata file (PUMF – provincial) for the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS) on Canadians’ Safety (Victimization). It contains the PUMF data and describes the objectives, methodology and estimation procedures for this survey as well as guidelines for releasing estimates.

Statistics Canada collected data on the topic of Canadians’ safety (Victimization) for the sixth time in 2014. Data were previously collected in 1988 (Cycle 3), 1993 (Cycle 8), 1999 (Cycle 13), 2004 (Cycle 18) and 2009 (Cycle 23). The 2014 provincial GSS collected data from persons aged 15 years and over living in private households in Canada, excluding residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut and full time residents of institutions.

Between 2009 and 2014, the core content of the survey was revised in a number of ways, based on experience gained from earlier iterations. Some questions were revised to improve their clarity for respondents, and others were added or dropped following consultations with stakeholders from the justice sector, government and academic communities.

Description:

This package was designed to enable users to access and manipulate the microdata file for Cycle 23 (2009) of the General Social Survey (GSS). It contains information on the objectives, methodology and estimation procedures, as well as guidelines for releasing estimates based on the survey.

Cycle 23 collected data from persons 15 years and over living in private households in Canada, excluding residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut; and full-time residents of institutions.

The purpose of this survey is to better understand how Canadians perceive crime and the justice system and their experiences of victimization. The survey is designed to produce estimates of the extent to which persons are the victims of eight types of offences (assault, sexual assault, robbery, theft of personal property, breaking and entering, motor vehicle theft, theft of household property and vandalism); to examine the risk factors associated with victimization; to examine the rates of reporting to the police; and to evaluate the fear of crime and public perceptions of crime and the criminal justice system.

Cycle 23 is the fifth cycle of the GSS dedicated to collecting data on victimization. Previous cycles had been conducted in 1988, 1993, 1999 and 2004. Cycle 23 includes most of the content from previous cycles as well as new content, added to reflect the society's emerging issues of crime prevention and Internet victimization.

Description:

This package was designed to enable users to access and manipulate the microdata file for the 21st cycle (2007) of the General Social Survey (GSS). It contains information on the objectives, methodology and estimation procedures, as well as guidelines for releasing estimates based on the survey. Cycle 21 of the GSS collected data from persons aged 45 years and over living in private households in the 10 provinces of Canada. The survey covered a wide range of topics such as well-being, family composition, retirement decisions and plans, care giving and care receiving experiences, social networks and housing.

Description:

Cycle 15 of the General Social Survey (GSS) is the third cycle to collect detailed information on family life in Canada. The previous GSS cycles that collected family data were Cycles 5 and 10. Topics include demographic characteristics such as age, sex, and marital status; family origin of parents; brothers and sisters; marriages of respondent; common-law unions of respondent; fertility and family intentions; values and attitudes; education history; work history; main activity and other characteristics.

The target population for Cycle 15 of the GSS is all persons 15 years of age and older in Canada, excluding residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, and full-time residents of institutions.

Description:

This publication presents data on young offender admissions to custody and community services, with breakdowns by custody (remand, secure, open) and probation, and key case characteristics, such as age, sex, Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal status and most serious offence. In addition, it includes data pertaining to releases from remand, secure custody and open custody, by sex and time served. These breakdowns are presented at the national and provincial/territorial levels.

Data presented in this publication are drawn from two primary sources: 1) The Youth Custody and Community Services (YCCS) Survey. The objective of this survey is to collect and analyse information on the application of dispositions under the Young Offenders Act from provincial and territorial agencies responsible for youth corrections and programs. 2) The Youth Key Indicator Report (YKIR). This survey measures the average counts of youth in custody (remand, secure and open) and on probation. The YKIR describes average daily counts (caseload), which measure the volume of offenders held in custody or on probation on an average day at month-end. This information also provides an examination of youth incarceration and probation rates in Canada.

Description:

This Statistics Canada publication is a collection of five annotated maps and graphs that describe the geographic distribution of manure in Canada by river basin. The amount of manure produced is estimated along with some of the major substances found in manure: (i) nitrogen, (ii) phosphorus, (iii) total coliform bacteria and (iv) fecal coliform bacteria.

The maps and figures presented in this report indicate that there are geographic areas in Canada characterized by higher levels of total livestock manure and related production of nitrogen, phosphorus and bacteria. Areas that repeatedly showed the highest levels were found in central and southern Alberta, southern Manitoba, southern Ontario, southeastern Quebec, parts of Prince Edward Island, the west Fraser River area in southern British Columbia and an area near Wolfville and Kentville, Nova Scotia.

Description:

This publication presents data on revenue and expense items from wholesalers and retailers by trade group and by province. There are 16 retail trade groups and 11 wholesale trade groups. Profiles of the retail trade groups are provided for each individual province/territory and are comprised of: number of locations, total operating revenues, cost of goods sold, gross margin and employee earnings and benefits. At the national level for each retail trade group are the following performance indicators: sales to inventory, cost of goods sold to inventory, gross margin and profit margin. Also provided at the national level are total operating revenues, number of locations for independent and for chain stores, the number of retail businesses by trade and total operating revenue by SIC (4 digit when possible).

The 11 wholesale trade groups, plus grain and petroleum products, are profiled for each individual province/territory giving: number of locations, total operating revenues, cost of goods sold, gross margin and employee earnings and benefits. Performance indicators by trade group at the national level including sales to inventory, cost of goods sold to inventory, gross margin and profit margin are provided. Total operating revenue at the national level by Standard Industrial Classification and by class of customer and trade group are also provided.

Description:

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.

Description:

With this working paper, Statistics Canada is releasing 1991 Census data tabulated by a new geographic classification called "census metropolitan area and census agglomeration influenced zones", or MIZ. This classification applies to census subdivisions (municipalities) that lie outside census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations. This part of Canada covers 96% of the country's total land mass and contains 22% of its population, yet up to now we have been limited in our means of differentiating this vast area. The MIZ classification shows the influence of census metropolitan areas (CMA) and census agglomerations (CA) on surrounding census subdivisions as measured by commuting flows based on 1991 Census place of work data. This version of the MIZ classification also incorporates a preliminary version of a north concept that flags census subdivisions according to their location in the north or south of Canada.

The series of tables presented here show detailed demographic, social and economic characteristics for Canada as a whole, for the six major regions of Canada, and for individual provinces and territories. Within each table, the data are subdivided into five categories: census metropolitan area or census agglomeration, strong MIZ, moderate MIZ, weak MIZ and no MIZ. Within each of these categories, the data are further subdivided into north and south.

Readers are invited to review and use the data tables to assess whether this combined MIZ and north/south classification of non-CMA/CA areas provides sufficient detail to support data analysis and research. The intent of this MIZ classification is to reveal previously hidden data detail and thereby help users address issues related to this vast geographic area.

This is the first of three related Geography working papers (catalogue no. 92F0138MPE). The second working paper (no. 2000-2, 92F0138MPE00002) provides background information about the methodology used to delineate the MIZ classification. The third working paper (no. 2000-3, 92F0138MPE00003) describes the methodology used to define a continuous line across Canada that separates the north from the south to further differentiate the MIZ classification.

Description:

Consulting Engineering Services Price Index (CEPI) is an annual index that measures changes in the prices for services provided by consulting engineers. These services encompass advisory and design work as well as construction or project management. They are provided for many types of projects (fields of specialization), and to both Canadian and foreign clients. Price indexes are published for 10 fields of specialization as well as for national, regional, and foreign markets.

Description:

This paper describes recent developments in adaptive sampling strategies and introduces new variations on those strategies. Recent developments described included targeted random walk designs and adaptive web sampling. These designs are particularly suited for sampling in networks; for example, for finding a sample of people from a hidden human population by following social links from sample individuals to find additional members of the hidden population to add to the sample. Each of these designs can also be translated into spatial settings to produce flexible new spatial adaptive strategies for sampling unevenly distributed populations. Variations on these sampling strategies include versions in which the network or spatial links have unequal weights and are followed with unequal probabilities.

Description:

This paper presents a review and assessment of the use of balanced sampling by means of the cube method. After defining the notion of balanced sample and balanced sampling, a short history of the concept of balancing is presented. The theory of the cube method is briefly presented. Emphasis is placed on the practical problems posed by balanced sampling: the interest of the method with respect to other sampling methods and calibration, the field of application, the accuracy of balancing, the choice of auxiliary variables and ways to implement the method.

Description:

In this paper, a discussion of the three papers from the US Census Bureau special compilation is presented.

Description:

This issue presents statistics, derived from the Importer Register Database, on importing establishments for the years 2002 to 2009. This Importer Register Database provides importer statistics such as the number of importers and the value of their imports by industry, importer size, origin and province of residence.

The establishment is the statistical unit of measure. Consequently, any reference made here to "importers" represents "statistical establishments that imported." Inclusion in the database requires that an establishment has imported merchandise in at least one year from 2002 to 2009. If an establishment does not import in a given year, that establishment is not included in the Register for that year.

This report is divided into four sections: "Highlights" consist of an overview of results of the 2009 Importer Register Database; "Findings" contains more detailed analyses of the Importer Register Database; "Methodology, Data concepts and definitions" outlines the estimation methods and limitations as well as the fundamental principles of the Importer Register Database; and "Data tables" contain tabular data for the years from 2002 to 2009.

Description:

This issue presents exporter statistics from 1996 to 2009 including the number of exporters, the value of their domestic exports by industry, exporter size, destination and province of residence as well as employment statistics of exporting establishments for the year 2009. The data in this issue are at the establishment level and are derived from the Exporter Register Database.

Description:

Dual frame telephone surveys are becoming common in the U.S. because of the incompleteness of the landline frame as people transition to cell phones. This article examines nonsampling errors in dual frame telephone surveys. Even though nonsampling errors are ignored in much of the dual frame literature, we find that under some conditions substantial biases may arise in dual frame telephone surveys due to these errors. We specifically explore biases due to nonresponse and measurement error in these telephone surveys. To reduce the bias resulting from these errors, we propose dual frame sampling and weighting methods. The compositing factor for combining the estimates from the two frames is shown to play an important role in reducing nonresponse bias.

Description:

Data linkage is the act of bringing together records that are believed to belong to the same unit (e.g., person or business) from two or more files. It is a very common way to enhance dimensions such as time and breadth or depth of detail. Data linkage is often not an error-free process and can lead to linking a pair of records that do not belong to the same unit. There is an explosion of record linkage applications, yet there has been little work on assuring the quality of analyses using such linked files. Naively treating such a linked file as if it were linked without errors will, in general, lead to biased estimates. This paper develops a maximum likelihood estimator for contingency tables and logistic regression with incorrectly linked records. The estimation technique is simple and is implemented using the well-known EM algorithm. A well known method of linking records in the present context is probabilistic data linking. The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed estimators in an empirical study which uses probabilistic data linkage.

Description:

In this paper we study small area estimation using area level models. We first consider the Fay-Herriot model (Fay and Herriot 1979) for the case of smoothed known sampling variances and the You-Chapman model (You and Chapman 2006) for the case of sampling variance modeling. Then we consider hierarchical Bayes (HB) spatial models that extend the Fay-Herriot and You-Chapman models by capturing both the geographically unstructured heterogeneity and spatial correlation effects among areas for local smoothing. The proposed models are implemented using the Gibbs sampling method for fully Bayesian inference. We apply the proposed models to the analysis of health survey data and make comparisons among the HB model-based estimates and direct design-based estimates. Our results have shown that the HB model-based estimates perform much better than the direct estimates. In addition, the proposed area level spatial models achieve smaller CVs than the Fay-Herriot and You-Chapman models, particularly for the areas with three or more neighbouring areas. Bayesian model comparison and model fit analysis are also presented.

Description:

Small area estimation based on linear mixed models can be inefficient when the underlying relationships are non-linear. In this paper we introduce SAE techniques for variables that can be modelled linearly following a non-linear transformation. In particular, we extend the model-based direct estimator of Chandra and Chambers (2005, 2009) to data that are consistent with a linear mixed model in the logarithmic scale, using model calibration to define appropriate weights for use in this estimator. Our results show that the resulting transformation-based estimator is both efficient and robust with respect to the distribution of the random effects in the model. An application to business survey data demonstrates the satisfactory performance of the method.

Description:

This paper introduces a R-package for the stratification of a survey population using a univariate stratification variable X and for the calculation of stratum sample sizes. Non iterative methods such as the cumulative root frequency method and the geometric stratum boundaries are implemented. Optimal designs, with stratum boundaries that minimize either the CV of the simple expansion estimator for a fixed sample size n or the n value for a fixed CV can be constructed. Two iterative algorithms are available to find the optimal stratum boundaries. The design can feature a user defined certainty stratum where all the units are sampled. Take-all and take-none strata can be included in the stratified design as they might lead to smaller sample sizes. The sample size calculations are based on the anticipated moments of the survey variable Y, given the stratification variable X. The package handles conditional distributions of Y given X that are either a heteroscedastic linear model, or a log-linear model. Stratum specific non-response can be accounted for in the design construction and in the sample size calculations.

Description:

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.

Description:

This report explains the concept of income and provides definitions of the various sources of income and derived income variables. It also documents the various aspects of the census that can have an impact on census income estimates.

Description:

This paper states how SN is preparing for a new era in the making of statistics, as it is triggered by technological and methodological developments. An essential feature of the turn to the new era is the farewell to the stovepipe way of data processing. The paper discusses how new technological and methodological tools will affect processes and their organization. Special emphasis is put on one of the major chances and challenges the new tools offer: establishing coherence in the content of statistics and in the presentation to users.

Description:

The Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) links immigration and taxation administrative records into a comprehensive source of data on the labour market behaviour of the landed immigrant population in Canada. It covers the period 1980 to 1995 and will be updated annually starting with the 1996 tax year in 1999. Statistics Canada manages the database on behalf of a federal-provincial consortium led by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The IMDB was created specifically to respond to the need for detailed and reliable data on the performance and impact of immigration policies and programs. It is the only source of data at Statistics Canada that provides a direct link between immigration policy levers and the economic performance of immigrants. The paper will examine the issues related to the development of a longitudinal database combining administrative records to support policy-relevant research and analysis. Discussion will focus specifically on the methodological, conceptual, analytical and privacy issues involved in the creation and ongoing development of this database. The paper will also touch briefly on research findings, which illustrate the policy outcome links the IMDB allows policy-makers to investigate.

Description:

As the availability of both health utilization and outcome information becomes increasingly important to health care researchers and policy makers, the ability to link person-specific health data becomes a critical objective. This type of linkage of population-based administrative health databases has been realized in British Columbia. The database was created by constructing an historical file of all persons registered with the health care system, and then by probabilistically linking various program files to this 'coordinating' file. The first phase of development included the linkage of hospital discharge data, physician billing data, continuing care data, data about drug costs for the elderly, births data and deaths data. The second phase of development has seen the addition data sources external to the Ministry of Health including cancer incidence data, workers' compensation data, and income assistance data.

Description:

Following the problems with estimating underenumeration in the 1991 Census of England and Wales the aim for the 2001 Census is to create a database that is fully adjusted to net underenumeration. To achieve this, the paper investigates weighted donor imputation methodology that utilises information from both the census and census coverage survey (CCS). The US Census Bureau has considered a similar approach for their 2000 Census (see Isaki et al 1998). The proposed procedure distinguishes between individuals who are not counted by the census because their household is missed and those who are missed in counted households. Census data is linked to data from the CCS. Multinomial logistic regression is used to estimate the probabilities that households are missed by the census and the probabilities that individuals are missed in counted households. Household and individual coverage weights are constructed from the estimated probabilities and these feed into the donor imputation procedure.

Description:

The geographical and temporal relationship between outdoor air pollution and asthma was examined by linking together data from multiple sources. These included the administrative records of 59 general practices widely dispersed across England and Wales for half a million patients and all their consultations for asthma, supplemented by a socio-economic interview survey. Postcode enabled linkage with: (i) computed local road density; (ii) emission estimates of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxides, (iii) measured/interpolated concentration of black smoke, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants at practice level. Parallel Poisson time series analysis took into account between-practice variations to examine daily correlations in practices close to air quality monitoring stations. Preliminary analyses show small and generally non-significant geographical associations between consultation rates and pollution markers. The methodological issues relevant to combining such data, and the interpretation of these results will be discussed.

Description:

Electricity rates that vary by time-of-day have the potential to significantly increase economic efficiency in the energy market. A number of utilities have undertaken economic studies of time-of-use rates schemes for their residential customers. This paper uses meta-analysis to examine the impact of time-of-use rates on electricity demand pooling the results of thirty-eight separate programs. There are four key findings. First, very large peak to off-peak price ratios are needed to significantly affect peak demand. Second, summer peak rates are relatively effective compared to winter peak rates. Third, permanent time-or-use rates are relatively effective compared to experimental ones. Fourth, demand charges rival ordinary time-of-use rates in terms of impact.

Description:

We use data on 14 populations of coho salmon to estimate critical parameters that are vital for management of fish populations. Parameter estimates from individual data sets are inefficient and can be highly biased, and we investigate methods to overcome these problems. Combination of data sets using nonlinear mixed effects models provides more useful results, however questions of influence and robustness are raised. For comparison, robust estimates are obtained. Model-robustness is also explored using a family of alternative functional forms. Our results allow ready calculation of the limits of exploitation and may help to prevent extinction of fish stocks. Similar methods can be applied in other contexts where parameter estimation is part of a larger decision-making process.

Description:

This report deals with sampling and weighting, a process whereby certain characteristics are collected and processed for a random sample of dwellings and persons identified in the complete census enumeration. Data for the whole population are then obtained by scaling up the results for the sample to the full population level. The use of sampling may lead to substantial reductions in costs and respondent burden, or alternatively, can allow the scope of a census to be broadened at the same cost.