Analysis

Description:

Price inflation for Canadian consumers has thus far been much lower in the 1990s than in the previous two decades. This has especially been the case for the prices of consumer goods. In the 1990-97 period, the price index for consumer goods rose by just 16%. However, the 1990s inflation rate for consumer services was a markedly higher 26%.

Description:

Our objectives in this chapter are to determine the degree of intergenerational income mobility in Canada during the mid-1980s and 1990s and to investigate whether it has changed over time. In an era of increasing income inequality within a generation, it is important to understand whether equality of opportunity is preserved, or whether increasing polarization in labour market outcomes will be further exacerbated in the next generation.

Description:

The reproduction of poverty may very well result from the social behaviour of children as they attain adulthood and become parents. Consequently, we focus in this chapter on the impact that family life disruption has on the transition to family life in adulthood for the first generations of Canadian children experiencing parental divorce in significant proportions.

Description:

The primary goal of this chapter is to improve our understanding of the roles that family structure and low-income play in the determination of psychiatric disorders, poor school performance, and social problems among Canadian children. While there is broad agreement that environmental factors have an impact on these outcomes, until recently there has been little or no Canadian data with which to assess the importance of socio-economic factors in determining the incidence and severity of such problems.

Description:

In this chapter, we assess the family's role in determining the acquisition of higher education and literacy. More specifically, our objective is to relate individual educational attainment, literacy abilities, and labour market characteristics to parental educational and labour market attributes. We compare different age cohorts and thereby examine relationships between parents and children over more than one generation.

Description:

Consumer expenditures by households are increasingly a driving force behind economic growth - not only for many individual industries, but also for the overall economy. In 1996, personal expenditures amounted to 58.3% of Canada's nominal gross domestic product (GDP), up from 56.6% in 1986. Aggregate consumer spending patterns are affected by several factors. Consumer tastes can shift over time, as new commodities are introduced and others become outdated. As well, changes in the demographic, economic and social characteristics of consumers can affect consumer decisions, as can shifts in the relative prices, utilities and quality levels of different goods and services.

Description:

This paper investigates the inter-provincial labour mobility behaviour of immigrants relative to that of native-born Canadians. Foreign-born Canadians differ a great deal from their domestically-born counterparts. The foreign-born population is geographically concentrated in a few provinces and a few big cities. As a whole, they are older, better educated, more likely to be married, and more likely to have dependent children and bigger households. They are less active in participating in full-time education and training. They fare relatively better in the labour market. As a result, a higher proportion of them receive social security benefits that are directly tied to the presence of dependent children or age such as family allowance benefits and pension income, but a lower proportion receive benefits that are related to labour market performance such as employment insurance benefits and social assistance benefits.

As a whole, immigrants are relatively less mobile inter-provincially. This is true both nationally and across almost every province. Among those who move to other provinces, destinations for foreign-born migrants are highly geographically concentrated. Most of them make their new homes in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. A significantly lower proportion of them relocate to other provinces for economic considerations but a much higher proportion move to go to school or after retirement. Earnings return to their inter-provincial migration is significantly more substantial. This is the result of both wage increase and more hours of work after migration.

Multi-variate regression results show that there are no statistically significant structural differences in the determinants of inter-provincial migration decisions between comparable foreign- and native-born Canadians. The probability of moving to other provinces, for immigrants as well as for domestically-born Canadians, is higher if earnings potentials elsewhere are relatively higher, lower if it is relatively harder to find employment elsewhere, higher among better educated workers, lower among French-speaking Canadians, lower among union members, and decreases with age, family size and job tenure. None of the proxies for government's labour market interventions significantly affect the decision to move inter-provincially. The lower mobility rates among the foreign-born are fully attributable to distributional and compositional differences between the immigrant and non-immigrant populations.

These findings have a direct policy implication on immigration selection. To encourage population and labour force growth in economically less prosperous provinces, it appears appropriate and effective to amend the current immigration selection and approval system, considering intended destinations as an additional factor and awarding additional points to applicants who choose designated provinces.

Description:

This paper highlights recent trends in employment insurance (formerly unemployment insurance). It also provides a review of the historic evolution of the employment insurance program. The following summarizes the main results.

The EI system has turned from large deficits prior to 1993, to nearly balancing the books in that year, and further to substantial surpluses ever since. This is attributable to many factors. Premium contributions collected from employees and employers have been stable at a historically high level since 1994 largely thanks to the recovery of the economy. On the other hand, benefit payouts have steadily declined since 1993 mainly due to a falling number of beneficiaries since 1993, benefit rate reduction from 60% to 57% in 1993 and further to 55% in 1994 except for low income claimants with dependents (back up 60%).

The declining number of beneficiaries is in turn attributable to many factors. Unemployment as well as the unemployment rate has been falling since 1993 (there was a slight increase in 1996). Characteristics of the unemployed may have changed. There has also been a series of significant changes in policy parameters regarding benefit eligibility since 1990.

Over the course of its nearly sixty years of existence, the EI system has undergone numerous changes. Most significantly, the 1971 UI Act which widely liberalized the pre-1971 system; a series of subsequent fine-tuning and tightening-up; and the abolishment of minimum hours/earnings coverage requirements (all employees are now covered), as well as the name change to "employment insurance" from "unemployment insurance".

Description:

This report examines the fit or mismatch between the job requirements of Canadian workers and their literacy skills, thus profiling patterns of literacy usage and underusage in the Canadian labour market.

Description:

Education is an important determinant of one's position in society, affecting a person's participation in the community and likely success in the labour market. The inherited intellectual capital of the family - forged over the years by generations of family members' achievements at school and work - often plays a large role in a child's educational achievement. It can contribute indirectly by paving the way for a higher level of educational attainment. This article assesses the role of inherited intellectual capital in children's acquisition of postsecondary education.

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: This paper describes the composition of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket and the changes introduced with the 2024 basket update, based on 2023 expenditure weights.

Description: This article sheds light on the diverse experiences of self-employed workers in Canada by analysing additional indicators such as the prevalence of gig work, plans for the future, and the ability to find clients.

Description: This series of regional maps shows the number of school-aged children eligible to primary and secondary instruction in English in Quebec by census subdivision, and the proportion of these children who attend or have attended an English-language school in Canada. All the information provided comes from the 2021 Census of Population and the 2022 Open Database of Educational Facilities.

Description: This study used Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) administrative data within the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform to compare enrolment and persistence in postsecondary education (PSE) among high school graduates in British Columbia with and without special needs across five cohorts from 2010/2011 to 2014/2015 before and after controlling for several sociodemographic characteristics and academic achievement.

Description: The Canadian Income Survey (CIS) has introduced improvements to the methods and data sources used to produce income and poverty estimates with the release of its 2022 reference year estimates. Foremost among these improvements is a significant increase in the sample size for a large subset of the CIS content. The weighting methodology was also improved and the target population of the CIS was changed from persons aged 16 years and over to persons aged 15 years and over. This paper describes the changes made and presents the approximate net result of these changes on the income estimates and data quality of the CIS using 2021 data. The changes described in this paper highlight the ways in which data quality has been improved while having little impact on key CIS estimates and trends.

Description: The current study uses the 2011 National Household Survey and the 2016 and 2021 Censuses to provide data on the number of Indigenous foster children in private households, foster child rates, and disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous foster care rates between 2011 and 2021. Subsequently, select sociodemographic characteristics of Indigenous children in foster care and household characteristics are explored using the 2021 Census.

Description: Using British Columbia Ministry of Education administrative school data within the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform, this study compared the proportions of high school graduates among Grade 12 students with and without special needs across nine cohorts from 2010/2011 to 2018/2019 before and after controlling for several sociodemographic characteristics.

Description: The Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program (PCEIP) draws from a wide variety of data sources to provide information on the school-age population, elementary, secondary and postsecondary education, transitions, and labour market outcomes.

PCEIP products include tables, fact sheets, reports and a methodological handbook. They present indicators for all of Canada, the provinces, the territories, as well as selected international comparisons and comparisons over time.

The Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program (PCEIP) is an ongoing initiative of the Canadian Education Statistics Council, a partnership between Statistics Canada and the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada that provides a set of statistical measures on education systems in Canada.

Description: The agricultural sector in Canada has relied increasingly on temporary foreign workers (TFWs) to fill the longstanding labour shortage. The number of TFWs in crop production, animal production and aquaculture, and support activities for crop and animal production more than tripled between 2005 and 2020. This study examines the transition to permanent residency (PR) of TFWs in primary agriculture and the retention in the sector among those who obtained PR. The study focuses on TFWs whose first employment was in primary agriculture and who entered the sector between 2005 and 2020.

Description: Temporary residents constitute an important supply of labour for the Canadian economy. However, some of them do not work in a given year, even when holding a valid work permit. This article estimates the share of temporary residents who had paid employment but were “weakly attached” to the Canadian labour market in 2019.

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.