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Description: The Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) is a comprehensive source of data that plays a key role in the understanding of the economic behaviour of immigrants. It is the only annual Canadian dataset that allows users to study the characteristics of immigrants to Canada at the time of admission and their economic outcomes and regional (inter-provincial) mobility over a time span of more than 40 years.

Description: Since 1984, an annual international symposium on methodological issues has been sponsored by Statistics Canada. Proceedings have been available since 1987.

Description: BigData users and the BigData research community are expanding rapidly, while statisticians at large are seemingly becoming divided between those who are enthusiastic and those who are concerned, if not downright hostile. Is BigData also a big step ahead, truly advancing our ability to extract meaningful information and actual knowledge from data? Is BigData underplaying traditional statistical inference as we know it, supplanting survey methodology as a low-cost futuristic option? In this paper I will attempt to unravel the multifaceted relationship bridging BigData to sampling methodology. Starting by reasoning why it should be interesting to look at BigData from a sampling statistician’s perspective, I will delve deeper into the somewhat ambiguous definition of BigData and share some very personal considerations and views on the matter. In the process, several open questions will arise while discussing a personal selection of insights that are traceable through the vast body of statistical literature around BigData and sampling methodology. The discussion will take various angles explored across nine key points, and it will conclude with a forward-looking perspective on a main challenge for future research: addressing the strong assumptions needed to manage deviations from purely randomized data collection.

Description: In his article, Professor Carl-Erik Särndal presents for sample-based statistics a new conceptual framework with only a few key assumptions. Selected aspects of the research tradition in Survey Science are briefly discussed in my comments.

Description: This reference guide is intended for users of the Census Subdivisions Boundary File. The guide provides an overview of the file, the general methodology used to create it, and important technical information for users.

Description: The Census Subdivision Boundary File contains the boundaries of all census subdivisions which combined cover all of Canada. A census subdivision is a municipality or an area treated as an equivalent to a municipality for statistical purposes (for example, unorganized territories). The file provides a framework for mapping and spatial analysis using commercially available geographic information systems (GIS) or other mapping software.

The Census Subdivision Boundary File is portrayed in Lambert conformal conic projection and is based on the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). A reference guide is available (92-162-G).

Description: This reference guide is intended for users of the Census of Population Road Network File (92-500-X). It provides an overview of the general methodology used to create this file, as well as important technical information.

Description:

This geographical file represents Canada's national road network, containing information such as street names, types, directions and address ranges.

A reference guide is available (Road Network File, Reference Guide, 92-500-G).

Description: The Guide to the Labour Force Survey contains a dictionary of concepts and definitions and covers topics such as survey methodology, data collection, data processing and data quality. It also contains information on products and services, sub-provincial geography descriptions as well as the survey questionnaire.

Description: The Guide to the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours contains a dictionary of concepts and definitions and covers topics such as survey methodology, data collection and processing, and data quality. It also provides information on products and services, as well as the survey questionnaire.

Description:

This is a CD-ROM product from the Ontario Adult Literacy Survey (OALS), conducted in the spring of 1998 with the goal of providing information on: the ability of Ontario immigrants to use either English or French in their daily activities; and on their self-perceived literacy skills, training needs and barriers to training.

In order to cover the majority of Ontario immigrants, the Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) of Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Kitchener, London and St. Catharines were included in the sample. With these 6 CMAs, about 83% of Ontario immigrants were included in the sample frame. This sample of 7,107 dwellings covered the population of Ontario immigrants in general as well as specifically targetting immigrants with a mother tongue of Italian, Chinese, Portuguese, Polish, and Spanish and immigrants born in the Caribbean Islands with a mother tongue of English.

Each interview was approximately 1.5 hours in duration and consisted of a half-hour questionnaire, asking demographic and literacy-related questions as well as a one-hour literacy test. This literacy test was derived from that used in the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) and covered the domains of document and quantitative literacy. An overall response rate to the survey of 76% was achieved, resulting in 4,648 respondents.

Description:

The Absence from Work Survey was designed primarily to fulfill the objectives of Human Resources Development Canada. They sponsor the qualified wage loss replacement plan which applies to employers who have their own private plans to cover employee wages lost due to sickness, accident, etc. Employers who fall under the plan are granted a reduction in their quotas payable to the Unemployment Insurance Commission. The data generated from the responses to the supplement will provide input to determine the rates for quota reductions for qualified employers.

Although the Absence from Work Survey collects information on absences from work due to illness, accident or pregnancy, it does not provide a complete picture of people who have been absent from work for these reasons because the concepts and definitions have been developed specifically for the needs of the client. Absences in this survey are defined as being at least two weeks in length, and respondents are only asked the three reasons for their most recent absence and the one preceding it.

Description:

This file provides data on the characteristics of the population such as ethnic origin, labour force activity and income levels. It contains 122 variables.

The Microdata Files contain samples of anonymous responses to the 1996 Census questionnaire. The files have been carefully scrutinized to ensure the complete confidentiality of the individual responses. PUMFs enable the development of statistical information about Canadians, the families and households to which they belong, and the dwellings in which they live.

Microdata files are unique among census products in that they give users access to non-aggregated data. This makes PUMFs a powerful research tools. The user can group and manipulate these variables to suit his/her own data and research requirements. These provide quick access to a comprehensive social and economic database about Canada and its people.

All subject matter covered by the census is included in these files.

The 1996 PUMFs will only be released on CD-ROM using microcomputer applications.

Description: Environmental protection expenditures in the business sector, preliminary data presents operating and capital expenditures made by primary and manufacturing industries in response to, or in anticipation of, environmental regulations and conventions. The results are from the Environmental Protection Expenditure Survey. The data contained in Environmental protection expenditures in the business sector help to fill important gaps in existing information on the demand side of the 'environment industry.' More specifically, it provides a measure of the cost to the industry of adopting pollution prevention and abatement technologies and other environmental protection practices. Data included in Environmental protection expenditures in the business sector are components of a national statistical database on the environment industry.

Description:

This is a user guide to the National Private Vehicle Use Survey. The purpose of the survey is to provide measures of vehicle fuel use and the determinants of fuel use. This information will provide the basis for future policy decisions aimed at reducing the fuel consumed by personal-use vehicles.

To this end, it is important to understand how consumers use their vehicles in order to design adequate energy efficiency programs and alternative energy programs. The specific objectives of the survey are: provide national estimates of annual fuel use for personal-use vehicles (includes passenger cars/light trucks and vans); provide national estimates of total distance driven; identify the main factors in the purchase of a vehicle; identify in a general fashion how households use their vehicles; develop driver profiles by sex, age, marital status, income, education and occupational group; and develop vehicle profiles by vehicle body type, model year, number of cylinders, transmission type, and presence or absence of air conditioning.

Description:

This report presents results of the Waste Management Industry Survey, 1995, which gathered information on the financial characteristics and waste management activities undertaken in the business sector.

Description:

The National Population Health Survey (NPHS) uses the Labour Force Survey sampling frame to draw a sample of approximately 22,000 households. The sample is distributed over four quarterly collection periods. In each household, some limited information is collected from all household members and one person, aged 12 years and over, in each household is randomly selected for a more in-depth interview.

The questionnaire includes content related to health status, use of health services, determinants of health and a range of demographic and economic information. For example, the health status information includes self-perception of health, a health status index, chronic conditions, and activity restrictions. The use of health services is probed through visits to health care providers, both traditional and non-traditional, and the use of drugs and other medications. Health determinants include smoking, alcohol use, physical activity and in the first survey, emphasis has been placed on the collection of selected psycho-social factors that may influence health, such as stress, self-esteem and social support. The demographic and economic information includes age, sex, education, ethnicity, household income and labour force status.

Description: This public use microdata file provides unaggregated data on the Aboriginal adult population - those who identify with their Aboriginal origin(s) and those who do not. For persons who identify, it contains almost 700 variables from the 1991 survey, such as, the group with which they identify, language proficiency, disability, chronic health conditions, schooling, work experience and the 1991 Census variables such as, income levels, marital status, fertility. The same census variables are provided for the population who does not identify.

Description:

The survey, begun in February 1994, monitors the smoking patterns of Canadians over a 12 month period and to measure any changes in smoking resulting from the decrease in taxes in cigarettes which took place in February 1994 in some provinces. It is related to MDF 82M0006. Updates are included in the microdata file price. A guide for this microdata file is available.

Description:

Data Collection Methodology (DCM) enable the collection of good quality data by providing expert advice and assistance on questionnaire design, methods of evaluation and respondent engagement. DCM assist in the development of client skills, undertake research and lead innovation in data collection methods. This is done in a challenging environment of organisational change and limited resources. This paper will cover 'how DCM do business' with clients and the wider methodological community to achieve our goals.

Description:

Over the past year, Statistics Canada has been developing and testing a new way to monitor the performance of interviewers conducting computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI). A formal process already exists for monitoring centralized telephone interviews. Monitors listen to telephone interviews as they take place to assess the interviewer's performance using pre-defined criteria and provide feedback to the interviewer on what was well done and what needs improvement. For the CAPI program, we have developed and are testing a pilot approach whereby interviews are digitally recorded and later a monitor listens to these recordings to assess the field interviewer's performance and provide feedback in order to help improve the quality of the data. In this paper, we will present an overview of the CAPI monitoring project at Statistics Canada by describing the CAPI monitoring methodology and the plans for implementation.

Description:

The use of Computer Audio-Recorded Interviewing (CARI) as a tool to identify interview falsification is quickly growing in survey research (Biemer, 2000, 2003; Thissen, 2007). Similarly, survey researchers are starting to expand the usefulness of CARI by combining recordings with coding to address data quality (Herget, 2001; Hansen, 2005; McGee, 2007). This paper presents results from a study included as part of the establishment-based National Center for Health Statistics' National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) which used CARI behavior coding and CARI-specific paradata to: 1) identify and correct problematic interviewer behavior or question issues early in the data collection period before either negatively impact data quality, and; 2) identify ways to diminish measurement error in future implementations of the NHHCS. During the first 9 weeks of the 30-week field period, CARI recorded a subset of questions from the NHHCS application for all interviewers. Recordings were linked with the interview application and output and then coded in one of two modes: Code by Interviewer or Code by Question. The Code by Interviewer method provided visibility into problems specific to an interviewer as well as more generalized problems potentially applicable to all interviewers. The Code by Question method yielded data that spoke to understandability of the questions and other response problems. In this mode, coders coded multiple implementations of the same question across multiple interviewers. Using the Code by Question approach, researchers identified issues with three key survey questions in the first few weeks of data collection and provided guidance to interviewers in how to handle those questions as data collection continued. Results from coding the audio recordings (which were linked with the survey application and output) will inform question wording and interviewer training in the next implementation of the NHHCS, and guide future enhancement of CARI and the coding system.

Description:

Telephone Data Entry (TDE) is a system by which survey respondents can return their data to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using the keypad on their telephone and currently accounts for approximately 12% of total responses to ONS business surveys. ONS is currently increasing the number of surveys which use TDE as the primary mode of response and this paper gives an overview of the redevelopment project covering; the redevelopment of the paper questionnaire, enhancements made to the TDE system and the results from piloting these changes. Improvements to the quality of the data received and increased response via TDE as a result of these developments suggest that data quality improvements and cost savings are possible as a result of promoting TDE as the primary mode of response to short term surveys.

Description:

Blaise has been in development in Statistics Canada since 1997. Over the years, the complexity of applications that have been deployed using this software is constantly increasing. Last year a very interesting approach has been developed to read bio-metrics directly from medical instruments, and input them into the Blaise software. This presentation will elaborate on this new usage of the software that just opens the door to an infinity of different applications and the added data quality of performing collection in this manner.

Description:

This paper will focus on establishment survey questionnaire design guidelines. More specifically, it will discuss the process involved in transitioning a set of guidelines written for a broad, survey methodological audience to a more narrow, agency-specific audience of survey managers and analysts. The process involved the work of a team comprised of individuals from across the Census Bureau's Economic Directorate, working in a cooperative and collaborative manner. The team decided what needed to be added, modified, and deleted from the broad starting point, and determined how much of the theory and experimental evidence found in the literature was necessary to include in the guidelines. In addition to discussing the process, the paper will also describe the end result: a set of questionnaire design guidelines for the Economic Directorate.

Description:

Many survey organizations use the response rate as an indicator for the quality of survey data. As a consequence, a variety of measures are implemented to reduce non-response or to maintain response at an acceptable level. However, the response rate is not necessarily a good indicator of non-response bias. A higher response rate does not imply smaller non-response bias. What matters is how the composition of the response differs from the composition of the sample as a whole. This paper describes the concept of R-indicators to assess potential differences between the sample and the response. Such indicators may facilitate analysis of survey response over time, between various fieldwork strategies or data collection modes. Some practical examples are given.

Description:

Census developers and social researchers are at a critical juncture in determining collection modes of the future. Internet data collection is technically feasible, but the initial investment in hardware and software is costly. Given the great divide in computer knowledge and access, internet data collection is viable for some, but not for all. Therefore internet cannot fully replace the existing paper questionnaire - at least not in the near future.

Canada, Australia and New Zealand are pioneers in internet data collection as an option for completing the census. This paper studies four driving forces behind this collection mode: 1) responding to social/public expectations; 2) longer term economic benefits; 3) improved data quality; and 4) improved coverage.

Issues currently being faced are: 1) estimating internet uptake and maximizing benefits without undue risk; 2) designing a questionnaire for multiple modes; 3) producing multiple public communication approaches; and 4) gaining positive public reaction and trust in using the internet.

This paper summarizes the countries' collective thinking and experiences on the benefits and limitation of internet data collection for a census of population and dwellings. It also provides an outline of where countries are heading in terms of internet data collection in the future.

Description:

In Canada, although complex businesses represent less than 1% of the total number of businesses, they contribute more than 45% of the total revenue. Statistics Canada recognized that the quality of the data collected from them is of great importance and has adopted several initiatives to improve the quality. One of the initiatives is the evaluation of the coherence of the data collected from large, complex enterprises. The findings of these recent coherence analyses have been instrumental in identifying areas for improvement. These, once addressed and improved, would be increasing the quality of the data collected from the large, complex enterprises while reducing the response burden imposed on them.

Description:

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.

Description: The Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) is a comprehensive source of data that plays a key role in the understanding of the economic behaviour of immigrants. It is the only annual Canadian dataset that allows users to study the characteristics of immigrants to Canada at the time of admission and their economic outcomes and regional (inter-provincial) mobility over a time span of more than 40 years.

Description: This reference guide is intended for users of the Census Subdivisions Boundary File. The guide provides an overview of the file, the general methodology used to create it, and important technical information for users.

Description: The Census Subdivision Boundary File contains the boundaries of all census subdivisions which combined cover all of Canada. A census subdivision is a municipality or an area treated as an equivalent to a municipality for statistical purposes (for example, unorganized territories). The file provides a framework for mapping and spatial analysis using commercially available geographic information systems (GIS) or other mapping software.

The Census Subdivision Boundary File is portrayed in Lambert conformal conic projection and is based on the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). A reference guide is available (92-162-G).

Description: This reference guide is intended for users of the Census of Population Road Network File (92-500-X). It provides an overview of the general methodology used to create this file, as well as important technical information.

Description:

This geographical file represents Canada's national road network, containing information such as street names, types, directions and address ranges.

A reference guide is available (Road Network File, Reference Guide, 92-500-G).

Description: The Guide to the Labour Force Survey contains a dictionary of concepts and definitions and covers topics such as survey methodology, data collection, data processing and data quality. It also contains information on products and services, sub-provincial geography descriptions as well as the survey questionnaire.

Description: The Guide to the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours contains a dictionary of concepts and definitions and covers topics such as survey methodology, data collection and processing, and data quality. It also provides information on products and services, as well as the survey questionnaire.

Description: This paper introduces and explains modifications made to the Labour Force Survey estimates.

Description: The Coverage Technical Report will present the errors included in census data that result from persons who are either missed (not enumerated) or enumerated more than once. The population coverage error is one of the most important types of errors because it affects the accuracy of not only population counts, but also all the census data results that describe the characteristics of the population universe.

Description: The Guide to the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey contains a dictionary of concepts and definitions, and covers topics such as survey methodology, data collection, processing, and data quality.