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Description: This series provides detailed documentation on the issues, concepts, methodology, data quality and other relevant research related to household expenditures from the Survey of Household Spending, the Homeowner Repair and Renovation Survey and the Food Expenditure Survey.

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This infographic explains the steps involved in collecting data for all Statistics Canada household and business surveys. The responses are compiled, analyzed and used to make important decisions and are kept strictly confidential.

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This infographic demonstrates the journey of data and how respondents' answers to our surveys become useful data used to make informed decisions. The infographic highlights the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the Survey of Household Spending (SHS), and the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS).

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Web surveys are generally connected with low response rates. Common suggestions in textbooks on Web survey research highlight the importance of the welcome screen in encouraging respondents to take part. The importance of this screen has been empirically proven in research, showing that most respondents breakoff at the welcome screen. However, there has been little research on the effect of the design of this screen on the level of the breakoff rate. In a study conducted at the University of Konstanz, three experimental treatments were added to a survey of the first-year student population (2,629 students) to assess the impact of different design features of this screen on the breakoff rates. The methodological experiments included varying the background color of the welcome screen, varying the promised task duration on this first screen, and varying the length of the information provided on the welcome screen explaining the privacy rights of the respondents. The analyses show that the longer stated length and the more attention given to explaining privacy rights on the welcome screen, the fewer respondents started and completed the survey. However, the use of a different background color does not result in the expected significant difference.

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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.

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When there is unit (whole-element) nonresponse in a survey sample drawn using probability-sampling principles, a common practice is to divide the sample into mutually exclusive groups in such a way that it is reasonable to assume that each sampled element in a group were equally likely to be a survey nonrespondent. In this way, unit response can be treated as an additional phase of probability sampling with the inverse of the estimated probability of unit response within a group serving as an adjustment factor when computing the final weights for the group's respondents. If the goal is to estimate the population mean of a survey variable that roughly behaves as if it were a random variable with a constant mean within each group regardless of the original design weights, then incorporating the design weights into the adjustment factors will usually be more efficient than not incorporating them. In fact, if the survey variable behaved exactly like such a random variable, then the estimated population mean computed with the design-weighted adjustment factors would be nearly unbiased in some sense (i.e., under the combination of the original probability-sampling mechanism and a prediction model) even when the sampled elements within a group are not equally likely to respond.

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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.

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This article examines the internal consistency of the English and French versions of the Medical Outcomes Study social support scale for a sample of older adults. The second objective is to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis to assess the factor structure of the English and French versions of the scale. A third purpose is to determine if the items comprising the scale operate in the same way for English- and French-speaking respondents.

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Data collection for poverty assessments in Africa is time consuming, expensive and can be subject to numerous constraints. In this paper we present a procedure to collect data from poor households involved in small-scale inland fisheries as well as agricultural activities. A sampling scheme has been developed that captures the heterogeneity in ecological conditions and the seasonality of livelihood options. Sampling includes a three point panel survey of 300 households. The respondents belong to four different ethnic groups randomly chosen from three strata, each representing a different ecological zone. In the first part of the paper some background information is given on the objectives of the research, the study site and survey design, which were guiding the data collection process. The second part of the paper discusses the typical constraints that are hampering empirical work in Sub-Saharan Africa, and shows how different challenges have been resolved. These lessons could guide researchers in designing appropriate socio-economic surveys in comparable settings.

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The current economic downturn in the US could challenge costly strategies in survey operations. In the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), ending the monthly data collection at 31 days could be a less costly alternative. However, this could potentially exclude a portion of interviews completed after 31 days (late responders) whose respondent characteristics could be different in many respects from those who completed the survey within 31 days (early responders). We examined whether there are differences between the early and late responders in demographics, health-care coverage, general health status, health risk behaviors, and chronic disease conditions or illnesses. We used 2007 BRFSS data, where a representative sample of the noninstitutionalized adult U.S. population was selected using a random digit dialing method. Late responders were significantly more likely to be male; to report race/ethnicity as Hispanic; to have annual income higher than $50,000; to be younger than 45 years of age; to have less than high school education; to have health-care coverage; to be significantly more likely to report good health; and to be significantly less likely to report hypertension, diabetes, or being obese. The observed differences between early and late responders on survey estimates may hardly influence national and state-level estimates. As the proportion of late responders may increase in the future, its impact on surveillance estimates should be examined before excluding from the analysis. Analysis on late responders only should combine several years of data to produce reliable estimates.

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The Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) is Canada's national survey that gathers information about adults and children whose daily activities are limited by a physical, mental, or other health-related condition or problem.

This report presents a series of tables on the help with everyday activities as well as unmet needs and help providers.

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This publication presents a series of tabulations produced from the General Social Survey on time use of Canadians. It includes information on average amounts of time spent on various activities by sex, by age, by selected role groups.

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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.

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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.

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This table is part of the topic "Ethnocultural Portrait of Canada," which shows 2001 Census data on ethnic groups in Canada, such as their size, geographic location and demographic characteristics. Similar information is available for Canada's visible minority population.

Data on the socio-economic characteristics of these populations will be available at a later date. As well, data on religions in Canada will be available in May 2003.

Additional information on ethnocultural diversity will be available from the Ethnic Diversity Survey in the summer of 2003.

This table can be found in the Topic Bundle: Ethnocultural Portrait of Canada, 2001 Census, Catalogue No. 97F0010XCB2001000.

It is also possible to subscribe to all the day-of-release bundles. For more information, refer to Catalogue No. 97F0023XCB.

This table is available FREE on the Internet, Catalogue No. 97F0010XIE2001001.

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The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), developed jointly by Human Resources Development Canada and Statistics Canada, is a comprehensive survey which follows the development of children in Canada and paints a picture of their lives. The survey monitors children's development and measures the incidence of various factors that influence their development, both positively and negatively.

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Cycle 13 of the General Social Survey (GSS) is the third cycle (following cycles 3 and 8) that collected information in 1999 on the nature and extent of criminal victimisation in Canada. Focus content for cycle 13 addressed two areas of emerging interest: public perception toward alternatives to imprisonment; and spousal violence and senior abuse. Other subjects common to all three cycles include perceptions of crime, police and courts; crime prevention precautions; accident and crime screening sections; and accident and crime incident reports. The target population of the GSS is all individuals aged 15 and over living in a private household in one of the ten provinces.

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The National Population Health Survey (NPHS) program is designed to collect information related to the health of the Canadian population. The first cycle of data collection began in 1994. The institutional component includes long-term residents (expected to stay longer than six months) in health care facilities with four or more beds in Canada with the principal exclusion of the Yukon and the Northwest Teritories. The document has been produced to facilitate the manipulation of the 1996-1997 microdata file containing survey results. The main variables include: demography, health status, chronic conditions, restriction of activity, socio-demographic, and others.

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Information in this microdata file refers to survey data collected in September - November, 1994 for persons 15 years of age and older in Canada's ten provinces. The survey's main data objectives were to measure the prevalence and patterns of alcohol and other drug use, to assess harm and other consequences of drug use and to evaluate trends in recent patterns of use. Canada's Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey (CADS) also updates and expands upon data collected in the first survey, the National Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey (NADS), conducted in 1989.

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Cycle 11 collected data from persons 15 years and older and concentrated on help given or received during temporary difficult times or out of necessity due to long-term health or physical limitations in daily activities either inside or outside the household. The target population of the General Social Survey consisted of all individuals aged 15 and over living in a private household in one of the ten provinces.

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Prior to 2006, the Canadian Census of Population relied on field staff to deliver questionnaires to all dwellings in Canada. For the 2006 Census, an address frame was created to cover almost 70% of dwellings in Canada, and these questionnaires were delivered by Canada Post. For the 2011 Census, Statistics Canada aims to expand this frame further, with a target of delivering questionnaires by mail to between 80% and 85% of dwellings. Mailing questionnaires for the Census raises a number of issues, among them: ensuring returned questionnaires are counted in the right area, creating an up to date address frame that includes all new growth, and determining which areas are unsuitable for having questionnaires delivered by mail. Changes to the address frame update procedures for 2011, most notably the decision to use purely administrative data as the frame wherever possible and conduct field update exercises only where deemed necessary, provide a new set of challenges for the 2011 Census.

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The US Census Bureau conducts monthly, quarterly, and annual surveys of the American economy and a census every 5 years. These programs require significant business effort. New technologies, new forms of organization, and scarce resources affect the ability of businesses to respond. Changes also affect what businesses expect from the Census Bureau, the Census Bureau's internal systems, and the way businesses interact with the Census Bureau.

For several years, the Census Bureau has provided a special relationship to help large companies prepare for the census. We also have worked toward company-centric communication across all programs. A relationship model has emerged that focuses on infrastructure and business practices, and allows the Census Bureau to be more responsive.

This paper focuses on the Census Bureau's company-centric communications and systems. We describe important initiatives and challenges, and we review their impact on Census Bureau practices and respondent behavior.

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The Enterprise Portfolio Manager (EPM) Program at Statistics Canada demonstrated the value of employing a "holistic" approach to managing the relationships we have with our largest and most complex business respondents.

Understanding that different types of respondents should receive different levels of intervention and having learnt the value of employing an "enterprise-centric" approach to managing relationships with important, complex data providers, STC has embraced a response management strategy that divides its business population into four tiers based on size, complexity and importance to survey estimates. Thus segmented, different response management approaches have been developed appropriate to the relative contribution of the segment. This allows STC to target resources to the areas where it stands to achieve the greatest return on investment. Tier I and Tier II have been defined as critical to survey estimates.

Tier I represent the largest, most complex businesses in Canada and is managed through the Enterprise Portfolio Management Program.

Tier II represents businesses that are smaller or less complex than Tier I but still significant in developing accurate measures of the activities of individual industries.

Tier III includes more medium-sized businesses, those that form the bulk of survey samples.

Tier IV represents the smallest businesses which are excluded from collection; for these STC relies entirely on tax information.

The presentation will outline:It works! Results and metrics from the programs that have operationalized the Holistic Response Management strategy.Developing a less subjective, methodological approach to segment the business survey population for HRM. The project team's work to capture the complexity factors intrinsically used by experienced staff to rank respondents. What our so called "problem" respondents have told us about the issues underlying non-response.

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Major changes were made to the data collection process for the 2006 Census. One of those changes was the Internet response option, which was offered to all private households in Canada. Nearly one in five households chose to complete and return the questionnaire on-line. In addition, a new method of promoting Internet response was tested via the Internet Response Promotion (IRP) Study. The new approach proved very effective at increasing the on-line response rate. Planning for the 2011 Census, which is under way, calls for the use of a wave collection strategy, and wave 1 would be the IRP method. This paper provides an overview of Internet data collection in the 2006 Census - evaluations, results, lessons learned - and the methodology that will be used in the next census in 2011.

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Over the last few years, there have been large progress in the web data collection area. Today, many statistical offices offer a web alternative in many different types of surveys. It is widely believed that web data collection may raise data quality while lowering data collection costs. Experience has shown that, offered web as a second alternative to paper questionnaires; enterprises have been slow to embrace the web alternative. On the other hand, experiments have also shown that by promoting web over paper, it is possible to raise the web take up rates. However, there are still few studies on what happens when the contact strategy is changed radically and the web option is the only option given in a complex enterprise survey. In 2008, Statistics Sweden took the step of using more or less a web-only strategy in the survey of industrial production (PRODCOM). The web questionnaire was developed in the generalised tool for web surveys used by Statistics Sweden. The paper presents the web solution and some experiences from the 2008 PRODCOM survey, including process data on response rates and error ratios as well as the results of a cognitive follow-up of the survey. Some important lessons learned are also presented.

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The Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) was redesigned in 2007 so that it could use the continuous data collection method. Since then, a new sample has been selected every two months, and the data have also been collected over a two-month period. The survey uses two collection techniques: computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) for the sample drawn from an area frame, and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) for the sample selected from a telephone list frame. Statistics Canada has recently implemented some data collection initiatives to reduce the response burden and survey costs while maintaining or improving data quality. The new measures include the use of a call management tool in the CATI system and a limit on the number of calls. They help manage telephone calls and limit the number of attempts made to contact a respondent. In addition, with the paradata that became available very recently, reports are now being generated to assist in evaluating and monitoring collection procedures and efficiency in real time. The CCHS has also been selected to implement further collection initiatives in the future. This paper provides a brief description of the survey, explains the advantages of continuous collection and outlines the impact that the new initiatives have had on the survey.

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Until now, years of experience in questionnaire design were required to estimate how long it would take a respondent, on the average, to complete a CATI questionnaire for a new survey. This presentation focuses on a new method which produces interview time estimates for questionnaires at the development stage. The method uses Blaise Audit Trail data and previous surveys. It was developed, tested and verified for accuracy on some large scale surveys.

First, audit trail data was used to determine the average time previous respondents have taken to answer specific types of questions. These would include questions that require a yes/no answer, scaled questions, "mark all that apply" questions, etc. Second, for any given questionnaire, the paths taken by population sub-groups were mapped to identify the series of questions answered by different types of respondents, and timed to determine what the longest possible interview time would be. Finally, the overall expected time it takes to complete the questionnaire is calculated using estimated proportions of the population expected to answer each question.

So far, we used paradata to accurately estimate average respondent interview completion times. We note that the method that we developed could also be used to estimate specific respondent interview completion times.

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The growing difficulty of reaching respondents has a general impact on non-response in telephone surveys, especially those that use random digit dialling (RDD), such as the General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS is an annual multipurpose survey with 25,000 respondents. Its aim is to monitor the characteristics of and major changes in Canada's social structure. GSS Cycle 21 (2007) was about the family, social support and retirement. Its target population consisted of persons aged 45 and over living in the 10 Canadian provinces. For more effective coverage, part of the sample was taken from a follow-up with the respondents of GSS Cycle 20 (2006), which was on family transitions. The remainder was a new RDD sample. In this paper, we describe the survey's sampling plan and the random digit dialling method used. Then we discuss the challenges of calculating the non-response rate in an RDD survey that targets a subset of a population, for which the in-scope population must be estimated or modelled. This is done primarily through the use of paradata. The methodology used in GSS Cycle 21 is presented in detail.

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Businesses which have not responded to a mail survey are generally subject to intensive follow up (IFU) by telephone or other means to obtain a response. As this contact is expensive, strategies are needed to optimise the approach to conducting calls for IFU purpose.

This paper presents results from an investigation conducted into the number and type of IFU contacts made for business surveys at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The paper compares the amount of effort expended in IFU compared to the response rates and contribution to key estimates for these surveys, and discusses possible uses of this type of information to make more optimal use of resources.

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The present report reviews the results of a mailing experiment that took place within a large scale demonstration project. A postcard and stickers were sent to a random group of project participants in the period between a contact call and a survey. The researchers hypothesized that, because of the additional mailing (the treatment), the response rates to the upcoming survey would increase. There was, however, no difference between the response rates of the treatment group that received the additional mailing and the control group. In the specific circumstances of the mailing experiment, sending project participants a postcard and stickers as a reminder of the upcoming survey and of their participation in the pilot project was not an efficient way to increase response rates.

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The paper examines the results of an initial evaluation of the effectiveness of the lighter, non-bureaucratic approach to questionnaire design called the SLID (Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics ) Notebook

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This report presents the results of the May 1993 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) test as they relate to the wealth items, at the individual level and at the family level.

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This paper examines the issues and the procedures designed to maintain a representative sample of the population for the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID).

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This paper describes the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) following rules, which govern who is traced and who is interviewed. It also outlines the conceptual basis for these procedures.

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This report presents general observations of the first annual Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) income interview by members of the head office project team. It also gives a summary of responses from a subset of interviewers who were asked to complete a debriefing questionnaire after completing SLID collection.

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This research paper represents a reference guide for the contact and demographic modules of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID).

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This paper presents comments from a sample of interviewers from each regional office who were selected to complete a debriefing questionnaire to evaluate the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) 1995 income interview.