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While spending on prescription drugs still constitutes less than 1% of the overall household budget, the average expenditure rose 71% between 1992 and 2002. Lack of universal coverage for prescription drugs could adversely affect seniors on fixed incomes and people with specific medical conditions. Spending is most affected by province of residence.

The likelihood of returning to paid employment after retirement is influenced by various factors. Although most retirees rejoin the workforce for financial reasons, non-financial considerations are also important. Many in the study who worked full time prior to retirement chose to return on a part-time basis - over one-third of the men and more than half of the women.

The Guaranteed Income Supplement is one of the pillars of Canada's safety net for seniors. Available to those with little or no income other than Old Age Security, it plays an integral part in reducing low income among those 65 and over. However, a misunderstanding of the rules and requirements has meant that some eligible seniors are missing out.

After a period of decline from the late 1980s to mid-1990s, the youth employment rate (aged 15 to 24) rebounded between 1997 and 2004. Most of the jobs were in industries that traditionally hire large numbers of young people, including food services. The article documents the growth in youth employment by age, sex, industry and province.

As households age and labour market attachment diminishes, income, savings and wealth generally become less. Households also become smaller as adult children leave or a spouse dies. And spending patterns change. Using 'similar' households, this study looks at changes in spending patterns for households headed by persons aged 55 or older in 1982 and 2003.

This report presents indicators to measure the workload and performance of the criminal justice system, as well as indictors on a number of socio-demographic and economic factors that can be associated with crime and victimization. In this report, workload and volume measures centre on the work of the police, courts, corrections, diversion programs and victim services and changes over time. Examples of workload and volume indicators examined in this report include: the number of criminal incidents known to police; the number of people serviced by alternative measures, mediation, dispute resolution and diversion programs; the number of cases dealt with in court; average counts in corrections institutions, and; the number of persons assisted by victim service agencies. Performance indicators are organized according to the following five general goals of the criminal justice system: 1) Public order, safety and national security through prevention and intervention; 2) Offender accountability, reintegration and rehabilitation; 3) Public trust, confidence and respect for the justice system; 4) Social equity and access to the justice system for all citizens, and; 5) Victim needs served. Examples of performance indicators examined in this report are: the overall cost of administering the sectors of the criminal justice system; the type and length of sentences ordered in court; public satisfaction with the police, the courts, and the correctional and parole systems; the number of applications for legal aid, and; the number of services for victims of crime. The various socio-demographic and economic indicators included in this report are presented in order to present statistical information on the factors that can be associated with crime. These 'context of crime indicators are organized into three broad categories: Community and society, Family, and Individual. Examples of such indicators examined in this report are: the age and sex distributions of the population; income levels and labour force participation; levels of social engagement; levels of gang activity; family structures; levels of child support; levels of education; the rate of literacy, and; the rate of alcohol and drug abuse among the adult and youth population.

This article uses Labour Force Survey data for the 1990-1991 to 2004-2005 school years to examine trends in the high school drop-out rate for Canada and the provinces, for males compared to and females and for census metropolitan areas compared to rural areas. A high school drop-out is defined as the share of 20-to-24-year-olds who are not attending school and who have not graduated from high school.

The federal government and the provincial and territorial governments share the administration of correctional services in Canada, which include custody (sentenced custody, remand and other temporary detention) and community-based sentences (probation, conditional sentences) as well as statutory release and parole supervision. Correctional services agencies at both levels work toward the same goal, that is, the protection of society as well as the rehabilitation of offenders and their safe reintegration into communities as productive members.

This Juristat reports on data from the Adult Correctional Services Survey for the 2003/04 fiscal year, and shows trends in these data from 1994/95. It examines average counts of adults who have been incarcerated, who were under community supervision on probation, serving a conditional sentence or on conditional release (parole and statutory release). The number of admissions to these programs, the offences leading to the admission, the duration of the incarceration or probation, as well as some offender characteristics, such as age, sex and Aboriginal identity are also described. Furthermore, the cost of correctional services in 2003/04, broken down by type of activity and level of government is examined. The average daily inmate costs from 1994/95 to 2003/04, as well as the number of correctional institutions in Canada in 2003/04 are reported.

These on-line data tables provide information pertaining to services provided by governmental agencies responsible for adult corrections in each of the provincial, territorial and federal sectors. Statistical data are presented on caseload characteristics (e.g. number of admissions to correctional facilities and community supervision, age and sex of offenders, offences for which the offender is admitted to a correctional facility and probation, sentence length, time served, etc.), average counts of offenders in correctional facilities and community supervision, and resources and expenditures relating to both custodial and community supervision services. Data presented in this report cover the three most recent fiscal years.

This guide presents information of interest to users of data from the Survey of Household Spending, which gathers information on the spending habits, dwelling characteristics and household equipment of Canadian households. The survey covers private households in the 10 provinces. (The territories are surveyed every second year, starting in 1999.)

This guide includes definitions of survey terms and variables, as well as descriptions of survey methodology and data quality. One section describes the various statistics that can be created using expenditure data (e.g., budget share, market share, aggregates and medians).

This report presents indicators to measure the workload and performance of the criminal justice system, as well as indictors on a number of socio-demographic and economic factors that can be associated with crime and victimization. In this report, workload and volume measures centre on the work of the police, courts, corrections, diversion programs and victim services and changes over time. Examples of workload and volume indicators examined in this report include: the number of criminal incidents known to police; the number of people serviced by alternative measures, mediation, dispute resolution and diversion programs; the number of cases dealt with in court; average counts in corrections institutions, and; the number of persons assisted by victim service agencies. Performance indicators are organized according to the following five general goals of the criminal justice system: 1) Public order, safety and national security through prevention and intervention; 2) Offender accountability, reintegration and rehabilitation; 3) Public trust, confidence and respect for the justice system; 4) Social equity and access to the justice system for all citizens, and; 5) Victim needs served. Examples of performance indicators examined in this report are: the overall cost of administering the sectors of the criminal justice system; the type and length of sentences ordered in court; public satisfaction with the police, the courts, and the correctional and parole systems; the number of applications for legal aid, and; the number of services for victims of crime. The various socio-demographic and economic indicators included in this report are presented in order to present statistical information on the factors that can be associated with crime. These 'context of crime indicators are organized into three broad categories: Community and society, Family, and Individual. Examples of such indicators examined in this report are: the age and sex distributions of the population; income levels and labour force participation; levels of social engagement; levels of gang activity; family structures; levels of child support; levels of education; the rate of literacy, and; the rate of alcohol and drug abuse among the adult and youth population.

These on-line data tables provide information pertaining to services provided by governmental agencies responsible for adult corrections in each of the provincial, territorial and federal sectors. Statistical data are presented on caseload characteristics (e.g. number of admissions to correctional facilities and community supervision, age and sex of offenders, offences for which the offender is admitted to a correctional facility and probation, sentence length, time served, etc.), average counts of offenders in correctional facilities and community supervision, and resources and expenditures relating to both custodial and community supervision services. Data presented in this report cover the three most recent fiscal years.

This issue of the Bulletin presents financial and operating statistics for the cable, direct-to-home satellite and wireless cable television industries for the 2001 to 2004 period.

This publication contains statistics and analysis on the operations of approximately 65 Canadian and foreign air carriers providing charter services both within Canada and to and from Canada. Data presented in graphical and tabular formats include passengers and cargo volumes along with origins and destinations.

The main indicators of functional food and nutraceutical activities in Canada are presented in this article. The data are from the 2003 Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals Survey which was designed to provide a benchmark measurement of the industry and a better understanding of the scope and nature of the sector.

Provincial and territorial governments are responsible for the administration of community-based correctional services in Canada for adults and youth, which include, but are not limited to probation, conditional sentences, and temporary absence programs. Although the Criminal Code of Canada, the Young Offenders Act and the Youth Criminal Justice Act set out guidelines, jurisdictions are not obliged to follow them directly. Jurisdictions will differ, sometimes substantially, in their administration.

This publication provides a descriptive overview of sentences and the delivery of community correctional services across all jurisdictions in Canada for both adult and youth. In addition, this publication reports on community corrections data collected from the special study, as well as data from the Adult Correctional Services Survey, the Key Indicator Report, the Youth Custody and Community Services Survey, and the Alternative Measures Survey. It examines admissions and average counts of adults and youth who were under community supervision, showing trends as far back as 1993/94. Furthermore, data on offender characteristics, such as sex and Aboriginal status are also presented.

To provide users with a complete picture of the activities associated with the Couriers and Local Messengers industry in Canada.

This issue of the Bulletin presents financial and operating statistics for the private radio industry for the 2001 to 2004 period.

In 2004, as part of its General Social Survey program, Statistics Canada conducted a survey on victimization and public perceptions of crime and the justice system. It was the fourth time that the General Social Survey (GSS) had examined victimization - previous surveys were conducted in 1988, 1993, and 1999. The target population was Canadians aged 15 years and older living in the ten provinces.

This report provides an overview of the main findings from cycle 18 of the General Social Survey on Victimization and makes comparisons with previous survey cycles. The analysis focuses on Canadians' outlook on crime and the criminal justice system, as well as their fear of crime. Variations by province are also presented.

This report presents an overview of Canadians' outlook on crime and the criminal justice system at both the national and Census Metropolitan Area levels. The information was collected in 2004 through Cycle 18 of the General Social Survey (GSS) on victimization. This survey, which has been previously carried out in 1999, 1993, and 1988, collects information on Canadians' experience of victimization, and public attitudes towards crime, police, courts, prison and parole. The target population of the GSS is all individuals aged 15 and over living in a private household in one of the ten provinces.

In 2004, e-commerce sales were $26.5 billion for private firms in Canada. The paper focuses on the strength of business-to-business sales that accounted for 75% of this total. In particular, the trends in three sectors - wholesale trade, manufacturing and retail trade - are examined. Data from the Survey of Electronic Commerce and Technology is used in the analysis.

This report reviews the literature related to the spatial variation of skills and human capital and its implication for local innovation capacity and economic development. The report develops around three major themes 1) skills and human capital; 2) innovation and technological change; and 3) growth.

Gasoline's share of consumer incomes rose both because of higher prices and increased consumption. The increase for household fuel was less onerous, as electricity rates have been more restrained. A number of industries, such as farming, forestry and travel are struggling with the rising cost of energy inputs.

Burkart and Ellingsen (2004) develop a model of trade credit and bank credit rationing which predicts that trade credit will be used by medium-wealth and low-wealth firms to help ease bank credit rationing. This paper tests this and other predictions of the Burkart and Ellingsen model using a large sample of more than 28,000 Canadian firms. The author uses an endogenous method to divide the firms into the appropriate wealth categories rather than arbitrarily selecting firms likely to be credit-rationed. The data support the main predictions of the model quite well. The author finds that medium-wealth firms substitute trade credit for bank credit consistent with using it to alleviate bank credit rationing. The low-wealth firms use trade credit but it is positively linked to bank credit, suggesting those firms are constrained in both bank credit and trade credit markets, and so cannot use trade credit to adjust as much to negative shocks. The findings also suggest that there are very few unconstrained, high-wealth Canadian firms. The author also finds low-wealth, declining and distressed firms supply proportionally more trade credit than firms with healthier balance sheets.

This working paper highlights a variety of aspects of innovation in selected industries serving the mining and/or forestry sectors, including incidence and types of innovation, novelty of innovation, innovation activities, sources of information and collaboration, problems and obstacles to innovation and impacts of innovation.

This study examines the rate of death and cancer incidence in Canadian Gulf and Kuwait War military personnel and compares them to those of other Canadian military personnel of the same era and to members of the general population.

Universities and their affiliated research hospitals make an important contribution to innovation in Canada's economy. Besides generating new knowledge and training highly qualified graduates, some of the technology they produce is patented and licensed to companies for incorporation into commercial products. This is the fourth survey of intellectual property commercialization in the higher education sector.

We investigate how family earnings instability has evolved between the late 1980s and the late 1990s and how family income instability varies across segments of the (family-level) earnings distribution. We uncover four key patterns. First, among the subset of families who were intact over the 1982-1991 and 1992-2001 periods, family earnings instability changed little between the late 1980s and the late 1990s. Second, the dispersion of families' permanent earnings became much more unequal during that period. Third, families who were in the bottom tertile of the (age-specific) earnings distribution in 1992-1995 had, during the 1996-2001 period, much more unstable market income than their counterparts in the top tertile. Fourth, among families with husbands aged under 45, the tax and transfer system has, during the 1996-2001 period, eliminated at least two-thirds (and up to all) of the differences in instability (measured in terms of proportional income gains/losses) in family market income that were observed during that period between families in the bottom tertile and those in the top tertile. This finding highlights the key stabilization role played by the tax and transfer system, a feature that has received relatively little attention during the 1990s when Employment Insurance (EI) (formerly known as Unemployment Insurance (UI)) and Social Assistance were reformed.

This article summarizes findings from the research paper entitled: The Instability of Family Earnings and Family Income in Canada, 1986 to 1991 and 1996 to 2001. Despite its implications for family well-being, little attention has been paid to the analysis of earnings instability in the context of the family versus the earnings profiles of individuals. While a focus on individuals is important, the extent to which families can generate stable income flows from the labour market is a key concern for policymakers. Therefore, using data from Statistics Canada's Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD), this study documents how family earnings instability has evolved between two six-year periods: 1986-1991 and 1996-2001. We also examine how husbands' earnings instability compares to couples' earnings instability, and we compute measures of instability based on family earnings, family market income, and family income before and after tax. This allows us to examine the extent to which wives' earnings reduce the volatility of husbands' employment income; the extent to which the tax and transfer system plays a stabilization role; and the extent to which wives' earnings, taxes, and transfers reduce the differences in instability between couples in the bottom of the earnings distribution and those in the top.

This working paper highlights a variety of aspects of innovation in selected transportation industries, including incidence and types of innovation, novelty of innovation, innovation activities, sources of information and collaboration, problems and obstacles to innovation and impacts of innovation.

This guide presents information of interest to users of data from the Survey of Household Spending, which gathers information on the spending habits, dwelling characteristics and household equipment of Canadian households. The survey covers private households in the 10 provinces. (The territories are surveyed every second year, starting in 1999.)

This guide includes definitions of survey terms and variables, as well as descriptions of survey methodology and data quality. One section describes the various statistics that can be created using expenditure data (e.g., budget share, market share, aggregates and medians).

In recent years there has been considerable international interest in key indicators. This paper surveys recent Canadian attempts to develop key indicators of economic, social, environmental or physical well-being. It classifies and discusses over forty such projects and publications in detail; briefly lists a further twenty projects; and provides references to a number of up-to-date surveys and annotated bibliographies which contain additional examples of indicator development in Canada. The paper provides information on a number of research centres working on indicator development and discusses international indicators which are relevant to the Canadian scene, either because they represent 'rototypes' of some particular kind of measure, or else might be regarded as constituting 'best practice' in an area. The paper also examines the motivations behind indicator development and seeks to address the question of whether efforts to extend measurement outside the economic field constitute attempts to "measure the unmeasurable".

This report describes the design, methodology, and results of the first study undertaken by Statistics Canada to measure the impact on Canadian cause of death trends of a new revision of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

Using 1999 Canadian mortality data, Statistics Canada carried out a comparability, or "bridge-coding", study by dual-coding deaths to both the Ninth and Tenth Revisions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9 and ICD-10). The preliminary results of this exercise were used to generate comparability ratios; these ratios measure the net effect of the new revision, with ratios above 1.00 indicating a net increase in deaths classified to a cause of death, and ratios below 1.00 indicating a net decrease.

The comparability ratios derived from dual-coding medical certificates of cause of death presented in this report estimate the size and direction of the disruption to cause of death trends due to the implementation of ICD-10. Researchers and analysts using Canadian mortality data should use these summary measures to calculate comparability-modified death counts and mortality rates to bridge the gap between ICD-9 and ICD-10.

This product contains presentations done at Statistics Canada's annual Economic Conference which provides a forum for the exchange of empirical research among the business, government, research and labour communities. The conference is also a means to promote economic and socio-economic analysis while subjecting existing data to critical assessment as part of an ongoing process of statistical development and review.

This report describes the quality indicators produced for the 2003 Survey of Household Spending. These quality indicators, such as coefficients of variation, nonresponse rates, slippage rates and imputation rates, help users interpret the survey data.

This document examines the functional limitations-physical, emotional and social-related to the most common types of diabetes and the conditions that result from the disease. These functional limitations are described and classified using the Classification and Measurement System of Functional Health (CLAMES).

These descriptions and classifications are the first step in a new approach to measuring the health of Canadians that examines what factors are adversely affecting population health and how to address them. This document also provides health professionals, advocacy groups, and individual Canadians with an overview of how living with diabetes affects day-to-day functioning.

This report describes changes planned for the 2006 Census education questions. Education questions are a part of the Form 2B (the long form) of the census. This form is completed by 20% of all households. These changes were tested in the May 2004 Census test of over 300,000 households. The changes aim to address data limitations in the 2001 Census questions and to enhance their relevance to education studies by allowing a better reflection of the range of educational pathways taken by Canadians. The report includes an explanation of the reasons for modifying the 2006 Census education content, a detailed look at each of the changes, and a discussion on historical consistency.

The aim of this paper is to describe the actual methodology used to estimate annual hours worked by industry and province in Canada in view to be consistent with the System of National Accounts.

This document examines the functional limitations - physical, emotional and social -experienced by patients at the time of diagnosis of cancer and as they undergo various treatments, remission, and palliative and terminal care. These functional limitations are described and classified using the Classification and Measurement System of Functional Health (CLAMES).

These descriptions and classifications are the first step in a new approach to measuring the health of Canadians that examines what factors are adversely affecting population health and how to address them. This document also provides health professionals, advocacy groups, and individual Canadians with an overview of how living with cancer affects day-to-day functioning.

The release of the 2003 data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) was accompanied by a historical revision which accomplished three things. First, the survey weights were updated to take into account new population projections based on the 2001 Census of Population, instead of the 1996 Census. Second, a new procedure in the weight adjustments was introduced to take into account an external source of information on the overall distribution of income in the population, namely the T4 file of employer remittances to Canada Revenue Agency. Third, the low income estimates were revised due to new low income cut-offs (LICOs). This paper describes the second of these improvements' the new weighting procedure to reflect the distribution of income in the population with greater accuracy. Part 1 explains in non-technical terms how this new procedure came about and how it works. Part 2 provides some examples of the impacts on the results for previous years.