Analysis

Description:

In sample surveys, the units contained in the sampling frame ideally have a one-to-one correspondence with the elements in the target population under study. In many cases, however, the frame has a many-to-many structure. That is, a unit in the frame may be associated with multiple target population elements and a target population element may be associated with multiple frame units. Such was the case in a building characteristics survey in which the frame was a list of street addresses, but the target population was commercial buildings. The frame was messy because a street address corresponded either to a single building, multiple buildings, or part of a building. In this paper, we develop estimators and formulas for their variances in both simple and stratified random sampling designs when the frame has a many-to-many structure.

Description:

In this paper we study the model-assisted estimation of class frequencies of a discrete response variable by a new survey estimation method, which is closely related to generalized regression estimation. In generalized regression estimation the available auxiliary data are incorporated in the estimation procedure by a linear model fit. Instead of using a linear model for the class indicators, we describe the joint distribution of the class indicators by a multinomial logistic model. Logistic generalized regression estimators are introduced for class frequencies in a population and domains. Monte Carlo experiments were carried out for simulated data and for real data taken from the Labour Force Survey conducted monthly by Statistics Finland. The logistic generalized regression estimation yielded better results than the ordinary regression estimation for small domains and particularly for small class frequencies.

Description:

This article examines the associations between women's characteristics and getting or not getting a Pap test.

Description:

This brief descriptive article takes a glance at changes in the output levels for various major service industry groups and some specific service industries within these groups. The major service industry groups to be examined here include: communications; finance, insurance and real estate; business services; traveler accommodation and food services; and leisure and personal services. These are the same industry groupings for which quarterly data are regularly presented in the latter half of this publication.

Description:

This overview highlights legislative and policy changes in Employment Insurance since 1940.

Description:

At the start of every school year, not all children head off to the classroom. Instead, some Canadian families choose an alternative form of education that is commonly known as home schooling or home-based education. Helped by the establishment of regionally based support groups and national organizations, the home-schooling movement has been growing in acceptance in North America.

Description:

A standard method for correcting for unequal sampling probabilities and nonresponse in sample surveys is poststratification: that is, dividing the population into several categories, estimating the distribution of responses in each category, and then counting each category in proportion to its size in the population. We consider poststratification as a general framework that includes many weighting schemes used in survey analysis (see Little 1993). We construct a hierarchical logistic regression model for the mean of a binary response variable conditional on poststratification cells. The hierarchical model allows us to fit many more cells than is possible using classical methods, and thus to include much more population-level information, while at the same time including all the information used in standard survey sampling inferences. We are thus combining the modeling approach often used in small-area estimation with the population information used in poststratification. We apply the method to a set of U.S. pre-election polls, poststratified by state as well as the usual demographic variables. We evaluate the models graphically by comparing to state-level election outcomes.

Description:

Since France has no population registers, population censuses are the basis for its socio-demographic information system. However, between two censuses, some data must be updated, in particular at a high level of geographic detail, especially since censuses are tending, for various reasons, to be less frequent. In 1993, the Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (INSEE) set up a team whose objective was to propose a system to substantially improve the existing mechanism for making small area population estimates. Its task was twofold: to prepare an efficient and robust synthesis of the information available from different administrative sources, and to assemble a sufficient number of "good" sources. The "multi-source" system that it designed, which is reported on here, is flexible and reliable, without being overly complex.

Description:

This article seeks to shed light on the early careers of science and engineering graduates over the last decade in Canada. It examines the evolution of employment patterns, earnings levels and other employment indicators of recent graduates, as well as their ability to find meaningful and satisfying work and to set out on rewarding and productive careers. The analysis is based on three cohorts of the National Graduates Survey (NGS) databases, which consist of large, representative samples of Canadian university graduates who completed their programs in 1982, 1986 and 1990 respectively. Each group was interviewed two and five years after graduation.

Description:

With the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada forged a partnership with the United States and Mexico that would see it enter an era of trade liberalization hitherto unparalleled on the North American continent. In so doing, Canada became a key player and an integral part of the world's largest economic union.

Description:

It used to be that Statistics Canada didn’t measure poverty. Not exactly. Poverty is complex, and there wasn't a single definition that everyone agreed on. So while StatCan did measure low income and other income inequality indicators, it didn't measure poverty per se. That is, until 2018, when the government chose to use the Market Basket Measure, or MBM, as Canada's Official Poverty Line. That means that the government now uses the MBM to track its poverty reduction targets.

But something strange happened during the pandemic: in 2020 the poverty rate fell. And it fell quite a bit. In fact, the poverty rate dropped in one year almost as much as it had in the four preceding years.

But why? What happened? Will the poverty rate continue to fall? And what happens if it hits zero? How would health outcomes change? Education outcomes? People's general happiness and well-being?

Has there ever been a time and place in Canada where the poverty rate was zero? The closest may be the Mincome Experiment of the 1970s in Manitoba. Many Canadians have never heard of this guaranteed income experiment, but it offers a glimpse at what eliminating poverty might look like.

To learn more we spoke with Burton Burton Gustajtis an economist from Statistics Canada, Evelyn Forget, a Professor of Economics and Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba and Kevin Milligan, a Professor of Economics in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia.

Description: Sylvia Ostry was appointed Canada’s first and only female Chief Statistician in 1972, but she didn’t get there by playing by the rules. She was ambitious but grew up in a world where many thought that it was shameful to be female and have a career.

Ostry was a Jewish woman in economics and, even after she earned a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, she was denied a job with the United Nations because of her gender. Nevertheless, she had a storied career, becoming the Chairman of the Economic Council of Canada then the Chief Economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). But we're not focusing on her career highlights. We're going behind the scenes to look at how she challenged herself to succeed, becoming both a respected economist and mother, and how she handled setbacks and discrimination while staying true to herself and demonstrating the integrity for which she's remembered today.

We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sylvia Ostry’s appointment as Chief Statistician. In this episode of Eh Sayers, featuring interviews with her sons, Adam Ostry and Jonathan Ostry, we are pleased to introduce you to this remarkable woman and to share with you eight pieces of advice inspired by her life.

Description:

Using data from the General Social Survey, a new study entitled "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Religiosity of Canadians" examines changes in rates of religious affiliation, frequency of participation in group and individual religious activities, and involvement with religious organizations between 2015 and 2020.

Description:

Using administrative data, such as goods and services tax (GST) revenue, this study assesses how the recovery began to unfold in selected service industries in 2021, the second year of the pandemic, even as supply chain disruptions, labour shortages, skill gaps and inflationary pressures intensified.

Description:

Signs of a tightening labour market in Canada have been growing amid elevated labour demand. Based on the results from the Canadian Survey of Business Conditions, this article provides insights on labour related challenges faced by businesses across Canada and how these businesses plan to move forward in light of these challenges. Shortage of labour force, recruiting skilled employees, and retaining skilled employees are leading obstacles businesses expect to face in the short term. In response to these challenges, many businesses plan to have management and current employees to work more hours to address these labour obstacles.

Description: Canadian businesses face many different obstacles in their day-to-day operations. Several factors such as size, industry of operation and region of operation can cause businesses to experience different obstacles affecting their ability to sell to their markets. The obstacles experienced by businesses owned by different segments of the population can also vary. The challenges of businesses majority-owned by women are illustrated within this article. It involves an examination of the data produced by the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions.

Description:

As the effects of the pandemic continue into its second year, we have all had to make adjustments with the way we go about our daily lives. We have seen plenty of service disruptions, closures of services and delays due to semiconductor scarcities, inclement weather or shifts in supply and demand. But what is the real cause of these disruptions and what is the supply chain that everyone is talking about? Our guest, Andrew Charles Barclay, an economist at Statistics Canada discusses the supply chain, what it is and why it’s important to Canadians. He also discusses the ripple effect it has on our consumer goods and services.

Description:

Healthcare is a privilege that Canadians value greatly. However, virtual healthcare was a rarity before COVID-19. Immediately after the pandemic hit in March 2020, Canadians were forced to rethink how they access healthcare. Appointments that would usually have happened in an office were suddenly taking place by phone or video chat. Now, two years later, most health care is conducted virtually. The question is whether the access to virtual healthcare will disappear when the pandemic ends. Our guest, Dr. Gigi Osler, Co-Chair of the Virtual Care Task Force for the Canadian Medical Association, joins us to explore the barriers to virtual healthcare, the changes we saw during the pandemic, and what’s being done to make virtual care permanent.

Description: Data for Canadian greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributable to household consumption and use of select goods and services along with the associated emissions intensity figures and breakdowns by final demand categories.

Description:

Canada’s diversity and rich cultural heritage have been shaped by the people who have come from all over the world to call it home. But even in our multicultural society, eliminating all forms of discrimination remains a challenge. In this episode, we turn a critical eye to the ways that cognitive bias risks perpetuating systemic racism. Statistics are supposed to accurately reflect the world around us, but are all data created equal? Join our guests, Sarah Messou-Ghelazzi, Communications Officer, Filsan Hujaleh, Analyst with the Centre for Social Data Insights and Innovation, and Jeff Latimer, Director General - Accountable for Health, Justice, Diversity and Populations at Statistics Canada as we explore the role data can play to make Canada a more equal society for all.

Description:

The biases and stabilities of alternative variance estimators for the two stage random group design (Rao et al. 1962) are evaluated in a Monte Carlo study in the context of Canadian Labour Force Survey. The variance formula for raking ratio estimation procedure is derived using Taylor linearization method. The properties of the variance formula are investigated by a Monte Carlo simulation.

Description:

Household surveys generally use separate procedures for estimating characteristics of persons and those of families. An integrated procedure is proposed and a least-squares estimator introduced to achieve this end. The estimator is shown to be unbiased under certain general conditions. Using data from the Canadian Labour Force Survey, variances for the estimator are calculated and shown to compare favourably to those from current procedures.

Description:

A hybrid technique is described that employs both conventional and raking ratio estimation to handle the case when the population frequencies N_ij in a two-dimensional table are known, but some of the observed frequencies n_ij are small (or zero). Results are provided on the approach taken as it has evolved in the Corporate Statistics of Income Program over the last several years. Changes are still being considered and these will be discussed as well.

Description:

The Canadian Health and Disability Survey, administered as a supplement to the Canadian Labour Force Survey in October 1983, collected data on potentially disabled persons by means of a screening questionnaire and a follow-up questionnaire for those screened-in. The data from the screening questionnaire, consisting of a set of activities of daily living, were used to group respondents according to identifiable characteristics. A description of the groups of respondents is provided along with an evaluation of the methods used in their determination. An incompletely ordered severity scale is proposed.

Description:

This study purports to assess whether there are temporal relationships between Unemployment Insurance Beneficiaries, Total Unemployment, Job Losers and Job Leavers in Canada using univariate and multivariate time series methods. The results indicate that during 1975-82 the Unemployment Insurance Beneficiaries series leads: (1) Total Unemployment by one month and (2) Job Leavers by two months. On the other hand, there are evidence of a feedback relationship between Unemployment Insurance Beneficiaries and Job Losers.

Description:

The cost-variance optimization of the design of the Canadian Labour Force Survey was carried out in two steps. First, the sample designs were optimized for each of the two major area types, the Self-Representing (SR) and the Non-Self-Representing (NSR) areas. Cost models were developed and parameters estimated from a detailed field study and by simulation, while variances were estimated using data from the Census of Population. The scope of the optimization included the allocation of sample to the two stages in the SR design, and the consideration of two alternatives to the old design in NSR areas. The second stage of optimization was the allocation of sample to SR and NSR areas.

Description:

This study considers the suitability of composite estimation techniques for the Canadian Labour Force Survey. The performance of a class of AK composite estimators introduced initially by Gurney and Daly is investigated for several characteristics. While the ordinary composite estimate has a large bias, the AK composite estimate is capable of reducing the bias. Composite estimates having minimum variance and minimum mean square error are compared.

Description:

This paper firstly provides an overview of the For-hire Trucking Survey background and of the steps that were involved in the revision that led to its re-design. It secondly describes the general direction of the methodology of the re-designed survey which is being implemented for reference year 1981.

Description:

This article presents findings from a study to characterize responding and non-responding households in the Labour Force Survey (LFS). This study was motivated by two projects associated with the LFS Redesign, namely, the family estimation project and evaluation of non-response compensation procedures. However, the results of the study are of general interest in the assessment of the quality of data emanating from the LFS.

Description:

The methodology of the For-hire Trucking Survey is discussed in this paper. This survey provides good examples of administrative and operational constraints faced by survey statisticians and field data collection teams.

Description:

Many of the 60 or so Aboriginal languages in Canada are considered endangered to varying degrees for their long-term survival. Assessing language vitality or endangerment through the measurement of various factors can provide useful information to help ensure the continuity of a language. This paper illustrates how the 2011 Census of Population and the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) can be used to measure some of the factors that provide information related to the vitality of Aboriginal languages.

Description:

This article presents employment and unemployment rates, and some information regarding salaries and industrial sectors of employees, for official-language minorities. These data are based on the Labour Force Survey and enable comparisons between official-language minority and majority according to their situation in the labour market for provinces or groups of provinces.

Description:

This annual publication is based on the Survey of Intellectual Property Commercialization in the Higher Education Sector which tracks the progress of innovation in this area.

The objective of the survey is to assure the availability of pertinent information to monitor science and technology related activities and to support the development of science and technology policy. The topic studied is intellectual property management at universities and affiliated teaching hospitals. The data are used to determine how to maximize the benefits resulting from public sector research. Data users include the federal and provincial governments and university administrators and researchers.

Description:

This report offers highlights from the 2007 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating (CSGVP) which was undertaken to better understand how Canadians support individuals and communities on their own or through their involvement with charitable and non-profit organizations. For this survey, thousands of Canadians aged 15 and over were asked how they: gave money and other resources to individuals and to organizations; volunteered time to help others and to enhance their communities; and participated in the practices which help give substance to active citizenship. The results from this survey allow this report to tell a story about who Canada's volunteers and charitable donors are and the ways in which they contribute to our society.

Description:

This publication provides the first national portrait of the many thousands of nonprofit and voluntary organizations found in every Canadian community. The data, from the National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations, reveal a set of organizations that are widely diverse in nature, touching virtually every aspect of Canadians' lives.

Description:

This booklet summarizes the key results of the first National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations. These organizations have a significant economic presence and serve as vehicles for citizen engagement. However, many report significant challenges to their capacity to fulfill their missions.

Description:

The Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS) was developed by Statistics Canada in partnership with the Department of Canadian Heritage in order to provide new and important information on the ethnic and cultural background of people in Canada and how it relates to their lives in Canada today.

The survey followed the 2001 Census with the census providing the frame for the sample. The target population for the survey was persons aged 15 years or older living in private households in the 10 provinces. The population did not include persons living in collective dwellings, persons living on Indian reserves, persons of Aboriginal origins living off-reserve, or persons living in Northern and remote areas. There was a separate post-censal survey designed for Aboriginal peoples, the Aboriginal Peoples Survey, which was conducted in 2001 and 2002.

Using the EDS data, this article examines Canada's ethno-cultural mosaic in 2002, providing a portrait of the different generations of Canadians who today make up this country. It also analyses the level of attachment that people in the different generations and ethnic groups have to their own ethno-cultural backgrounds and to the broader Canadian society.

Description:

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of issues related to the access and use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) among Canadian youth. In particular, this research examines the extent to which inequities in the use and access of ICT exist among Canadian high school students, based on gender, socio-economic status and rural-urban location. Three datasets have been used to study this issue: the Canadian portion of the Second International Technology in Education Study (SITES), an international survey which measures schools' use of technological resources; the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), which was conducted in conjunction with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); and Cycle 14 of the General Social Survey (GSS), which focusses specifically on issues related to ICT access and use.The results of these analyses suggest that there is a 'digital divide' among Canadian youth, in terms of access to and experience with ICT. Rural youth are less likely to have access to computers in the home; however, frequency of use and perceived competency levels are not compromised by this trend. Female youth and those from families with low levels of parental education are also less likely to have access to computers in their homes. These groups tend to spend less time on the computer and report lower levels of computer skills competency.

Description:

The 2001 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) is a post-censal survey of adults and children whose everyday activities are limited because of a physical condition or health problem. A sample of those persons who answered 'Yes' to the 2001 Census disability filter questions were included in the PALS survey population. Approximately 35,000 adults and 8,000 children living in private or collective households in the 10 provinces were selected to participate in the survey. The data were collected in the fall of 2001.

This paper focuses on the various supports available for adults with disabilities. These supports include technical aids and devices, assistance with everyday activities, housing modifications and tax credits.

Description:

This publication describes the statistical system used to produce Canada's balance of international payments and international investment position. Each of the accounts of these two statements is described in terms of concepts, data sources, methods and products. The Canadian practice is related to international standards. The publication concludes with a discusion of future challenges to maintain and enhance this statistical system. An extensive glossary is included. Some historical perspective is provided, notably in the Appendices where a summary of time series is provided along with a chronology of events that affected Canada's external sector over the last half of the XXth century. A description of the foundation of statistics is essential to help users in assessing the quality of data.