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Description: Data from the Census of Population are important for all communities and are vital to plan services that support education, employment, transportation, health care and housing. To maintain the relevance of the census, Statistics Canada evaluates and reviews the census questionnaire content for each census cycle. In preparation for the 2026 Census, Statistics Canada consulted Canadians from fall 2022 to spring 2023. Detailed responses were received from organizations and individuals representing federal, provincial, territorial and local government departments; First Nations people, Métis and Inuit; the general public; academia; special interest groups; and the private sector.

This report focuses on the findings of the 2026 Census data needs consultation and stakeholder discussions. Chapter 1 explains whom we consulted. Chapter 2 describes the strength of census data users’ needs such as the size of the population of interest. Chapter 3 provides an assessment of the perceived data gaps in census content and the availability and suitability of alternative data sources. Chapter 4 focuses on information needs by census topic and how preparations for the 2024 Census Test will help meet these needs.

Description: User consultation is the first step in determining Census Program content. The findings of content consultations are presented in these reports.

Description: To overcome the traditional drawbacks of chain sampling methods, the sampling method called “network sampling with memory” was developed. Its unique feature is to recreate, gradually in the field, a frame for the target population composed of individuals identified by respondents and to randomly draw future respondents from this frame, thereby minimizing selection bias. Tested for the first time in France between September 2020 and June 2021, for a survey among Chinese immigrants in Île-de-France (ChIPRe), this presentation describes the difficulties encountered during collection—sometimes contextual, due to the pandemic, but mostly inherent to the method.

Description: This file provides data on family composition in Canada.

The 2001 Census Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs) contain samples of anonymous responses to the 2001 Census questionnaire. The files have been carefully scrutinized to ensure the complete confidentiality of the individual responses. Three files are available: the Individuals File, the Families File, and the Households and Housing File.

Microdata files are unique among census products in that they give users access to non-aggregated data. The user can group and manipulate these variables to suit data and research requirements. Tabulations excluded from other census products can be created or relationships between variables can be analysed using different statistical tests. These files provide quick access to a comprehensive social and economic database about Canada and its people.

Most of the census subject matter is included in the microdata files. For the anonymity of respondents, geographic identifiers have been restricted to provinces, territories and large metropolitan areas.

Description: This hierarchical file provides data on the characteristics of the population. The 2006 Census Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs) contain samples of anonymous responses to the 2006 Census questionnaire. The files have been carefully scrutinized to ensure the complete confidentiality of the individual responses. The individual file was released on March 4, 2010 and the hierarchical file is available as of today, May 2, 2011.

Microdata files are unique among census products in that they give users access to non-aggregated data. The PUMFs user can group and manipulate these variables to suit data and research requirements. Tabulations excluded from other census products can be created or relationships between variables can be analysed using different statistical tests. PUMFs provide quick access to a comprehensive social and economic database about Canada and its people.

Most of the subject matter covered by the census is included in the microdata files. To ensure the respondents' anonymity, geographic identifiers have been restricted to provinces/territories and large metropolitan areas.

This product, offered on CD-ROM, contains the data file (in ASCII format), user documentation and SAS and SPSS program source codes to enable you to read the set of records. Note: users will require knowledge of data manipulation and retrieval software such as SAS or SPSS to be able to use this product.

Description: This video will help you understand the question about languages spoken at home and the main concepts and variables that flow from them. You will also learn to understand the differences between the concepts of all languages spoken regularly at home, languages spoken most often at home and other languages spoken regularly at home. It will also help you understand the changes that have been made to the question of languages spoken at home since the last census.

Description:

As is the case in advance of each Census, content consultations are being held with data users. The Census Content Consultation Guide gives you the opportunity to provide input.

Description:

This is a series of fact sheets offering an overview of changes in content for the 2021 Census questionnaire. These include 19 fact sheets focusing on new and modified content and one fact sheet providing information about the design and methodology of the 2019 Census Content Test.

Description: This video will allow you to identify the census questionnaire questions on knowledge of official and non-official languages. It will also allow you to understand how variables on knowledge of official and non-official languages are created and how they are disseminated and analyzed.

Description:

This article examines the mental health outcomes (i.e., self-rated mental health, change in mental health since physical distancing began, and severity of symptoms consistent with generalized anxiety disorder in the two weeks prior to completing the survey) of participants in a recent crowdsource questionnaire who belong to population groups designated as visible minorities in Canada.

Description: This file provides data on family composition in Canada.

The 2001 Census Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs) contain samples of anonymous responses to the 2001 Census questionnaire. The files have been carefully scrutinized to ensure the complete confidentiality of the individual responses. Three files are available: the Individuals File, the Families File, and the Households and Housing File.

Microdata files are unique among census products in that they give users access to non-aggregated data. The user can group and manipulate these variables to suit data and research requirements. Tabulations excluded from other census products can be created or relationships between variables can be analysed using different statistical tests. These files provide quick access to a comprehensive social and economic database about Canada and its people.

Most of the census subject matter is included in the microdata files. For the anonymity of respondents, geographic identifiers have been restricted to provinces, territories and large metropolitan areas.

Description: This hierarchical file provides data on the characteristics of the population. The 2006 Census Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs) contain samples of anonymous responses to the 2006 Census questionnaire. The files have been carefully scrutinized to ensure the complete confidentiality of the individual responses. The individual file was released on March 4, 2010 and the hierarchical file is available as of today, May 2, 2011.

Microdata files are unique among census products in that they give users access to non-aggregated data. The PUMFs user can group and manipulate these variables to suit data and research requirements. Tabulations excluded from other census products can be created or relationships between variables can be analysed using different statistical tests. PUMFs provide quick access to a comprehensive social and economic database about Canada and its people.

Most of the subject matter covered by the census is included in the microdata files. To ensure the respondents' anonymity, geographic identifiers have been restricted to provinces/territories and large metropolitan areas.

This product, offered on CD-ROM, contains the data file (in ASCII format), user documentation and SAS and SPSS program source codes to enable you to read the set of records. Note: users will require knowledge of data manipulation and retrieval software such as SAS or SPSS to be able to use this product.

Description: The Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey (CTADS) is a biennial general population survey of tobacco, alcohol and drug use among Canadians aged 15 years and older, with the primary focus on 15- to 24-year-olds. The CTADS is a telephone survey conducted by Statistics Canada on behalf of Health Canada.

Description:

Statistics Canada was approached by Stentor Resource Centre Incorporated to conduct a survey to monitor the telephone penetration rates across Canada. The survey determines if the respondents have a telephone line in their residence. If they do not have a telephone line, information is collected as to the reasons why. Information is also collected on the income characteristics of the selected households.

The management of the survey was transferred from Stentor to Bell Canada in the Fall of 1998.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) supplementary capacity is used to conduct this biannual survey. A sample of approximately 44,000 respondents is used for this survey (five out of six rotation groups). The survey data are collected using Computer Assisted Interviewing (CAI). The first data collection procedure took place during November's LFS week in 1996.

This microdata file is prepared biannually and contains the variables from the survey, plus geographical variables from the LFS (province, census metropolitan area, urban/rural breakdown). No other variables from the LFS are added to the file.

Description:

The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was a collaborative effort by twenty governments and three intergovernmental organizations. The countries of Australia, Belgium/Flanders, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland (French, German and Italian), United Kingdom, United States, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, and Slovenia participated in the IALS.

The Canadian IALS survey had a number of objectives. These were: a) to provide an updated profile of adult literacy abilities for Canada for comparison to that provided by the 1989 Survey of Literacy Skills Used in Daily Activities (LSUDA); b) to provide sufficiently large numbers of Franco-Ontarians, seniors, social assistance recipients, unemployment insurance recipients and out-of-school youth to profile their skill levels; c) to shed light on the relationship between performance, educational attainment, labour market participation and employment for those at certain literacy levels; and d) to compare Canadian literacy levels with those in other countries.

Description:

Special Surveys Division was originally contacted by the Health Council of Canada (HCC) during the summer of 2006 to conduct the first iteration of this survey which resulted in the Canadian Survey of Experiences with Primary Health Care (CSE-PHC), 2006-2007 survey. The HCC was created when the First Ministers' Accord on Health Care Renewal was signed in 2003. Their mandate is to report publicly on the progress of health care renewal in Canada. One of the Council's goals is to provide a system-wide perspective on health care reform to the Canadian public with a particular focus on issues related to accountability and transparency.

Once the results of the 2006-2007 survey were released, work began on the 2007-2008 questionnaire. The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) joined members of the HCC and the project team at Statistics Canada to begin shaping the 2007-2008 survey. The CIHI, which became a co-sponsor with the HCC, is an independent, national, not-for-profit organization working to improve the health of Canadians and the health care system by providing quality, reliable and timely health information. The research information they produce focuses on health care services, health spending and human resources working in the health sector, as well as issues surrounding the health of the population.

The 2007-2008 survey differed from the 2006-2007 version in several ways. Along with some content changes, mostly around barriers to access and use of health care, the survey sample was expanded and a sampling strategy was developed to permit national as well as provincial level estimates of survey results. A new questionnaire was developed and tested with focus groups during the month of January 2008, in four cities across the country. The collection mode was also changed from a paper/pencil survey collected over the telephone in 2006-2007 to a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) application in 2007-2008. Collection began in three Statistics Canada regional offices in April and continued until the end of June 2008.

Description:

This comprehensive source on international service transactions contains aggregate and detailed breakouts by type of service each year since 1989. Major categories are travel, transportation, commercial and government services. Commercial services, comprising a range of business and professional services are categorized by geographical area (United States, European Union and all other countries), industry, country of control (Canada, United States, other) and whether or not the service was with foreign affiliated companies; these details are presented from 1996.

New with the 1999 issue are annual breakdowns from 1991 of total services for 8 additional countries beyond the 47 already published. Each country is broken down into the following categories: travel, transportation, commercial and government services. For Canada as a whole, quarterly data for these same categories and 19 subcategories are also published from 1997, on both a raw and seasonally adjusted basis. The publication includes several pages of data analysis accompanied by graphics, definitions and data quality measures. Statistics are derived from surveys, administrative data and other sources.

Description:

This report presents the results of a pilot survey conducted by Statistics Canada to measure the fuel consumption of on-road motor vehicles registered in Canada. This study was carried out in connection with the Canadian Vehicle Survey (CVS) which collects information on road activity such as distance traveled, number of passengers and trip purpose.

Description:

This guide is for the Household Internet Use Survey microdata file. The Household Internet Use Survey is being conducted by Statistics Canada on behalf of Industry Canada. The information from this survey will assist the Science and Technology Redesign Project at Statistics Canada to fulfil a three-year contractual agreement between them and the Telecommunications and Policy Branch of Industry Canada. The Household Internet Use Survey is a voluntary survey. It will provide information on the use of computers for communication purposes, and households' access and use of the Internet from home.

The objective of this survey is to measure the demand for telecommunications services by Canadian households. To assess the demand, we measure the frequency and intensity of use of what is commonly referred to as "the information highway" among other things. This was done by asking questions relating to the accessibility of the Internet to Canadian households both at home, the workplace and a number of other locations. The information collected will be used to update and expand upon previous studies done by Statistics Canada on the topic of the Information Highway.

Description:

The main objective of the 2002 Youth Smoking Survey (YSS) is to provide current information on the smoking behaviour of students in grades 5 to 9 (in Quebec primary school grades 5 and 6 and secondary school grades 1 to 3), and to measure changes that occurred since the last time the survey was conducted in 1994. Additionally, the 2002 survey collected basic data on alcohol and drug use by students in grades 7 to 9 (in Quebec secondary 1 to 3). Results of the Youth Smoking Survey will help with the evaluation of anti-smoking and anti-drug use programs, as well as with the development of new programs.

Description: To overcome the traditional drawbacks of chain sampling methods, the sampling method called “network sampling with memory” was developed. Its unique feature is to recreate, gradually in the field, a frame for the target population composed of individuals identified by respondents and to randomly draw future respondents from this frame, thereby minimizing selection bias. Tested for the first time in France between September 2020 and June 2021, for a survey among Chinese immigrants in Île-de-France (ChIPRe), this presentation describes the difficulties encountered during collection—sometimes contextual, due to the pandemic, but mostly inherent to the method.

Description:

This article examines the mental health outcomes (i.e., self-rated mental health, change in mental health since physical distancing began, and severity of symptoms consistent with generalized anxiety disorder in the two weeks prior to completing the survey) of participants in a recent crowdsource questionnaire who belong to population groups designated as visible minorities in Canada.

Description:

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the parent-rated Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire with a nationally representative sample of Canadian children and adolescents.

Description:

This presentation gives an overview of the topics discussed during the virtual roundtables on the 2021 Census of Population questionnaire content. The five main topics are the following: family, demography and activity limitations; languages, ethnocultural diversity and immigration (including citizenship, religion, population groups, minority language education rights); Indigenous peoples; education, labour, commuting, and Veterans; and housing, income and expenditures.

Description: The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide an overview of the evolution of disability in Canada since the mid-1980's. It explains how the federal government, academics and person's with disabilities have worked together to develop survey questions that reflect this evolution and the impact that this evolution has had on the ability to measure change.

Description:

Statistical matching is a technique for integrating two or more data sets when information available for matching records for individual participants across data sets is incomplete. Statistical matching can be viewed as a missing data problem where a researcher wants to perform a joint analysis of variables that are never jointly observed. A conditional independence assumption is often used to create imputed data for statistical matching. We consider a general approach to statistical matching using parametric fractional imputation of Kim (2011) to create imputed data under the assumption that the specified model is fully identified. The proposed method does not have a convergent EM sequence if the model is not identified. We also present variance estimators appropriate for the imputation procedure. We explain how the method applies directly to the analysis of data from split questionnaire designs and measurement error models.

Description:

Discrepancies between self-reported and objectively measured physical activity are well-known. For the purpose of validation, this study compares a new self-reported physical activity questionnaire with an existing one and with accelerometer data.

Description:

Matrix sampling, often referred to as split-questionnaire, is a sampling design that involves dividing a questionnaire into subsets of questions, possibly overlapping, and then administering each subset to one or more different random subsamples of an initial sample. This increasingly appealing design addresses concerns related to data collection costs, respondent burden and data quality, but reduces the number of sample units that are asked each question. A broadened concept of matrix design includes the integration of samples from separate surveys for the benefit of streamlined survey operations and consistency of outputs. For matrix survey sampling with overlapping subsets of questions, we propose an efficient estimation method that exploits correlations among items surveyed in the various subsamples in order to improve the precision of the survey estimates. The proposed method, based on the principle of best linear unbiased estimation, generates composite optimal regression estimators of population totals using a suitable calibration scheme for the sampling weights of the full sample. A variant of this calibration scheme, of more general use, produces composite generalized regression estimators that are also computationally very efficient.

Description:

Coca is a native bush from the Amazon rainforest from which cocaine, an illegal alkaloid, is extracted. Asking farmers about the extent of their coca cultivation areas is considered a sensitive question in remote coca growing regions in Peru. As a consequence, farmers tend not to participate in surveys, do not respond to the sensitive question(s), or underreport their individual coca cultivation areas. There is a political and policy concern in accurately and reliably measuring coca growing areas, therefore survey methodologists need to determine how to encourage response and truthful reporting of sensitive questions related to coca growing. Specific survey strategies applied in our case study included establishment of trust with farmers, confidentiality assurance, matching interviewer-respondent characteristics, changing the format of the sensitive question(s), and non enforcement of absolute isolation of respondents during the survey. The survey results were validated using satellite data. They suggest that farmers tend to underreport their coca areas to 35 to 40% of their true extent.

Description:

In January 2006, a conference on longitudinal surveys hosted by Statistics Canada, the Social and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) concluded that Canada lacks a longitudinal survey which collects information on multiple subjects such as family, human capital, labour health and follows respondents for a long period of time. Following this conference, funds were received from the Policy Research Data Gaps fund (PRDG) to support a pilot survey for a new Canadian Household Panel Survey (CHPS-Pilot). Consultations on the design and content were held with academic and policy experts in 2007 and 2008, and a pilot survey was conducted in the fall of 2008. The objectives of the pilot survey were to (1) test a questionnaire, evaluate interview length and measure the quality of data collected, (2) evaluate several design features; and (3) test reactions to the survey from respondents and field workers. The pilot survey achieved a response rate of 76%, with a median household interview time of 64 minutes. Several innovative design features were tested, and found to be viable. Response to the survey, whether from respondents or interviewers, was generally positive. This paper highlights these and other results from the CHPS-Pilot.

Description:

The Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) is a longitudinal survey which collects information related to the standard of living of individuals and their families. By interviewing the same people over a period of six years, changes and the causes of these changes can be monitored.

A preliminary interview of background information is collected for all respondents aged 16 and over, who enter the SLID sample. Preliminary interviews are conducted for new household members during their first labour and income interview after they join the household. A labour and income interview is collected each year for all respondents 16 years of age and over.

The purpose of this document is to present the questions, possible responses and question flows for the 2007 preliminary, labour and income questionnaire (for the 2006 reference year).

Description:

When a survey respondent is asked to recall various events, it is known that the quality of the responses diminishes as the length of recall increases. On the other hand, increasing the frequency of data collection increases both the costs of collection and the burden on the respondents. The paper examines options which attempt to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. As it relates to this decision, the paper also describes how the sample has been designed to ensure that it remains representative of the target population, both for a given year and over time.

The conclusion is that, at this time, SLID should collect labour data in January to cover the previous calendar year and to collect income data in May, again to cover the previous calendar year.

Description:

A Preliminary Interview will be conducted on the first panel of SLID, in January 1993, as a supplement to the Labour Force Survey. The first panel is made up of about 20,000 households that are rotating out of the Labour Force Survey in January and February, 1993.

The purpose of this document is to provide a description of the purpose of the SLID Preliminary Interview and the question wordings to be used.

Description:

The compendium of Canadian Cancer Registry procedures manuals set out the rules for reporting cancer data to the CCR for all provincial and territorial cancer registries.

Description:

This reference document presents an overview of the different questions used by Statistics Canada to identify Aboriginal peoples. It is divided into three parts. Part one is a brief description of the data sources and their limitations. Part 2 deals with the 2006 census questions used to identify Aboriginal peoples while Part 3 deals with the identification questions used in the Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS) and the Aboriginal Children's Survey (ACS).

Description:

This electronic product provides information on all Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) variables, descriptions and response categories, as well as range of values. Starting with content themes, information is accessible through a hierarchical fashion, quickly guiding data users to variables of interest.

Description:

A Preliminary interview of background information is collected for all respondents aged 16 and over, who enter the sample for the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID). For the majority of the longitudinal respondents, this occurs when a new panel is introduced and the preliminary information is collected during the first Labour interview. However, all persons living with a longitudinal respondent are also interviewed for SLID. Thus Preliminary interviews are conducted for new household members during their first Labour interview after they join the household. Longitudinal persons who have turned 16 while their household is in the SLID sample are then eligible for SLID interviews so they are asked the Preliminary interview questions during their first Labour interview.

The purpose of this document is to present the questions, possible responses and question flows for the 2005 Preliminary questionnaire (for the 2004 reference year).

Description:

The Survey of Income and Labour Dynamics (SLID) interview is conducted using computer-assisted interviewing (CAI). CAI is paperless interviewing. This document is therefore a written approximation of the CAI interview, or the questionnaire.

In previous years, SLID conducted a Labour interview each January and a separate Income interview in May. In 2005 (reference year 2004) the two interviews were combined and collected in one interview in January.

A labour and income interview is collected for all respondents 16 years of age and over. Respondents have the option of answering income questions during the interview, or of giving Statistics Canada permission to use their income tax records.

In January 2005, data was collected for reference year 2004 from panels 3 and 4. Panel 3, in its sixth and final year, consisted of approximately 17,000 households and panel 4, in its third year, also consisted of approximately 17,000 households.

This document outlines the structure of the January 2005 Labour and Income interview (for the 2004 reference year) including question wording, possible responses, and flows of questions.

Description:

In previous years, the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) conducted a Labour interview each January and a separate Income interview in May. In 2005 (reference year 2004) the two interviews were combined and collected in one interview in January.

The data are collected using computer-assisted interviewing. Thus there are no paper questionnaires required for data collection. The questions, responses and interview flow for Labour and Income are documented in other SLID research papers. This document presents the information for the 2005 Entry Exit portion of the Labour Income interview (for the 2004 reference year).

The Entry Exit Component consists of five separate modules. The Entry module is the first set of data collected. It is information collected to update the place of residence, housing conditions and expenses, as well as the household composition. For each person identified in Entry, the Demographics module collects (or updates) the person's name, date of birth, sex and marital status. Then the Relationships module identifies (or updates) the relationship between each respondent and every other household member. The Exit module includes questions on who to contact for the next interview and the names, phone numbers and addresses of two contacts to be used only if future tracing of respondents is required. An overview of the Tracing component is also included in this document.

Description:

The Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) conducts two annual interviews: the Labour interview in January and the Income interview in May. The data are collected using computer-assisted interviewing. Thus there are no paper questionnaires required for data collection. The questions, responses and interview flow for Labour and Income are documented in other SLID research papers. This document presents the information for the 2004 Entry Exit portion of the Labour and the Income interviews (for the 2003 reference year).

The Entry Exit Component consists of five separate modules. The Entry module is the first set of data collected. It is information collected to update household composition and place of residence. For each person identified in Entry, the Demographics module collects (or updates) the person's name, date of birth, sex and marital status. Then the Relationships module identifies (or updates) the relationship between each respondent and every other household member. Relationship data is not collected in the May Income interview. The Exit module includes questions on who to contact for the next interview and the names, phone numbers and addresses of two contacts to be used only if future tracing of respondents is required. An overview of the Tracing module is also included in this document.