Analysis

Description: This infographic is a visual representation using some of the data from the 2023 Police Administration Survey. Findings reported on the infographic include results on key indicators such as police strength, number of police officers, number of calls for service and police personnel data.

Description: This thematic series groups different statistical products related to ethnicity, languages, and immigration. It features analytical documents of varying scopes, such as population profiles, reference materials, data products (including tables and factsheets), among other document types.

Description: Record linkage aims at identifying record pairs related to the same unit and observed in two different data sets, say A and B. Fellegi and Sunter (1969) suggest each record pair is tested whether generated from the set of matched or unmatched pairs. The decision function consists of the ratio between m(y) and u(y),probabilities of observing a comparison y of a set of k>3 key identifying variables in a record pair under the assumptions that the pair is a match or a non-match, respectively. These parameters are usually estimated by means of the EM algorithm using as data the comparisons on all the pairs of the Cartesian product ?=A×B. These observations (on the comparisons and on the pairs status as match or non-match) are assumed as generated independently of other pairs, assumption characterizing most of the literature on record linkage and implemented in software tools (e.g. RELAIS, Cibella et al. 2012). On the contrary, comparisons y and matching status in ? are deterministically dependent. As a result, estimates on m(y) and u(y) based on the EM algorithm are usually bad. This fact jeopardizes the effective application of the Fellegi-Sunter method, as well as automatic computation of quality measures and possibility to apply efficient methods for model estimation on linked data (e.g. regression functions), as in Chambers et al. (2015). We propose to explore ? by a set of samples, each one drawn so to preserve independence of comparisons among the selected record pairs. Simulations are encouraging.

Description: The authors used the Splink probabilistic linkage package developed by the UK Ministry of Justice, to link census data from England and Wales to itself to find duplicate census responses. A large gold standard of confirmed census duplicates was available meaning that the results of the Splink implementation could be quality assured. This paper describes the implementation and features of Splink, gives details of the settings and parameters that we used to tune Splink for our particular project, and gives the results that we obtained.

Description: Estimation at fine levels of aggregation is necessary to better describe society. Small area estimation model-based approaches that combine sparse survey data with rich data from auxiliary sources have been proven useful to improve the reliability of estimates for small domains. Considered here is a scenario where small area model-based estimates, produced at a given aggregation level, needed to be disaggregated to better describe the social structure at finer levels. For this scenario, an allocation method was developed to implement the disaggregation, overcoming challenges associated with data availability and model development at such fine levels. The method is applied to adult literacy and numeracy estimation at the county-by-group-level, using data from the U.S. Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. In this application the groups are defined in terms of age or education, but the method could be applied to estimation of other equity-deserving groups.

Description: In accordance with Statistics Canada’s long-term Disaggregated Data Action Plan (DDAP), several initiatives have been implemented into the Labour Force Survey (LFS). One of the more direct initiatives was a targeted increase in the size of the monthly LFS sample. Furthermore, a regular Supplement program was introduced, where an additional series of questions are asked to a subset of LFS respondents and analyzed in a monthly or quarterly production cycle. Finally, the production of modelled estimates based on Small Area Estimation (SAE) methodologies resumed for the LFS and will include a wider scope with more analytical value than what had existed in the past. This paper will give an overview of these three initiatives.

Description: Sampling variance smoothing is an important topic in small area estimation. In this paper, we propose sampling variance smoothing methods for small area proportion estimation. In particular, we consider the generalized variance function and design effect methods for sampling variance smoothing. We evaluate and compare the smoothed sampling variances and small area estimates based on the smoothed variance estimates through analysis of survey data from Statistics Canada. The results from real data analysis indicate that the proposed sampling variance smoothing methods work very well for small area estimation.

Description: The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is committed to improving access to more microdata, while ensuring privacy and confidentiality is maintained, through its virtual DataLab which supports researchers to undertake complex research more efficiently. Currently, the DataLab research outputs need to follow strict rules to minimise disclosure risks for clearance. However, the clerical-review process is not cost effective and has potential to introduce errors. The increasing number of statistical outputs from different projects can potentially introduce differencing risks even though these outputs from different projects have met the strict output rules. The ABS has been exploring the possibility of providing automatic output checking using the ABS cellkey methodology to ensure that all outputs across different projects are protected consistently to minimise differencing risks and reduce costs associated with output checking.

Description: With the availability of larger and more diverse data sources, Statistical Institutes in Europe are inclined to publish statistics on smaller groups than they used to do. Moreover, high impact global events like the Covid crisis and the situation in Ukraine may also ask for statistics on specific subgroups of the population. Publishing on small, targeted groups not only raises questions on statistical quality of the figures, it also raises issues concerning statistical disclosure risk. The principle of statistical disclosure control does not depend on the size of the groups the statistics are based on. However, the risk of disclosure does depend on the group size: the smaller a group, the higher the risk. Traditional ways to deal with statistical disclosure control and small group sizes include suppressing information and coarsening categories. These methods essentially increase the (mean) group sizes. More recent approaches include perturbative methods that have the intention to keep the group sizes small in order to preserve as much information as possible while reducing the disclosure risk sufficiently. In this paper we will mention some European examples of special focus group statistics and discuss the implications on statistical disclosure control. Additionally, we will discuss some issues that the use of perturbative methods brings along: its impact on disclosure risk and utility as well as the challenges in proper communication thereof.

Description: The publication of more disaggregated data can increase transparency and provide important information on underrepresented groups. Developing more readily available access options increases the amount of information available to and produced by researchers. Increasing the breadth and depth of the information released allows for a better representation of the Canadian population, but also puts a greater responsibility on Statistics Canada to do this in a way that preserves confidentiality, and thus it is helpful to develop tools which allow Statistics Canada to quantify the risk from the additional data granularity. In an effort to evaluate the risk of a database reconstruction attack on Statistics Canada’s published Census data, this investigation follows the strategy of the US Census Bureau, who outlined a method to use a Boolean satisfiability (SAT) solver to reconstruct individual attributes of residents of a hypothetical US Census block, based just on a table of summary statistics. The technique is expanded to attempt to reconstruct a small fraction of Statistics Canada’s Census microdata. This paper will discuss the findings of the investigation, the challenges involved in mounting a reconstruction attack, and the effect of an existing confidentiality measure in mitigating these attacks. Furthermore, the existing strategy is compared to other potential methods used to protect data – in particular, releasing tabular data perturbed by some random mechanism, such as those suggested by differential privacy.

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: Release published in The Daily – Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin

Description: This infographic provides estimates on health care workers' stress, alcohol consumption and positive health behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Estimates are provided across three primary health care worker groups: nurses, physicians, and Personal Support Workers/Care Aides (PSWs/CAs).

Description: Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, this article analyses the effects of family relationship processes and family member characteristics on the school achievement of boys and girls aged 6 to 11 years.

Description: Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, this article studies the links between academic achievement, children's views of themselves, and adults' support during the transition to early adolescence.

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This article examines the influences of neighbourhood and family socio-economic characteristics on children's readiness to start school. It uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY).

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In this Issue is a column where the Editor biefly presents each paper of the current issue of Survey Methodology. As well, it sometimes contain informations on structure or management changes in the journal.

Description:

This paper introduces Poisson Mixture sampling, a family of sampling designs so named because each member of the family is a mixture of two Poisson sampling designs, Poisson nps sampling and Bernoulli sampling. These two designs are at opposite ends of a continuous spectrum, indexed by a continuous parameter. Poisson Mixture sampling is conceived for use with the highly skewed populations often arising in business surveys. It gives the statistician a range of different options for the extent of the sample coordination and the control of response burden. Some Poisson Mixture sampling designs give considerably more precise estimates than the usual Poisson nps sampling. This result is noteworthy, because Poisson nps is in itself highly efficient, assuming it is based on a strong measure of size.

Description:

We develop an approach to estimating variances for X-11 seasonal adjustments that recognizes the effects of sampling error and errors from forecast extension. In our approach, seasonal adjustment error in the central values of a sufficiently long series results only from the effect of the X-11 filtering on the sampling errors. Towards either end of the series, we also recognize the contribution to seasonal adjustment error from forecast and backcast errors. We extend the approach to produce variances of errors in X-11 trend estimates, and to recognize error in estimation of regression coefficients used to model, e.g., calendar effects. In empirical results, the contribution of sampling error often dominated the seasonal adjustment variances. Trend estimate variances, however, showed large increases at the ends of series due to the effects of fore/backcast error. Nonstationarities in the sampling errors produced striking patterns in the seasonal adjustment and trend estimate variances.

Description:

Most statistical offices select the sample of commodities of which prices are collected for their Consumer Price Indexes with non-probability techniques. In the Netherlands, and in many other countries as well, those judgemental sampling methods come close to some kind of cut-off selection, in which a large part of the population (usually the items with the lowest expenditures) is deliberately left unobserved. This method obviously yields biased price index numbers. The question arises whether probability sampling would lead to better results in terms of the mean square error. We have considered simple random sampling, stratified sampling and systematic sampling proportional to expenditure. Monte Carlo simulations using scanner data on coffee, baby's napkins and toilet paper were carried out to assess the performance of the four sampling designs. Surprisingly perhaps, cut-off selection is shown to be a successful strategy for item sampling in the consumer price index.

Description:

We consider the use of calibration estimators when outliers occur. An extension is obtained for the class of Deville and Särndal (1992) calibration estimators based on Wright (1983) QR estimators. It is also obtained by minimizing a general metric subject to constraints on the calibration variables and weights. As an application, this class of estimators helps us consider robust calibration estimators by choosing parameters carefully. This makes it possible, e.g., for cosmetic reasons, to limit robuts weights to a predetermined interval. The use of robust estimators with a high breakdown point is also considered. In the specific case of the mean square metric, the estimator proposed by the author is a generalization of a Lee (1991) proposition. The new methodology is illustrated by means of a short simulation study.

Description:

This paper investigates a repeated sampling approach to take into account auxiliary information in order to improve the precision of estimators. The objective is to build an estimator with a small conditional bias by weighting the observed values by the inverses of the conditional inclusion probabilities. A general approximation is proposed in cases when the auxiliary static is a vector of Horvitz-Thompson estimators. This approximation is quite close to the optimal estimator discussed by Fuller and Isaki (1981), Montanari (1987, 1997), Deville (1992) and Rao (1994, 1997). Next, the optimal estimator is applied to a stratified sampling design and it is shown that the optimal estimator can be viewed as a generalised regression estimator for which the stratification indicator variables are also used at the estimation stage. Finally, the application field of this estimator is discussed in the general context of the use of auxiliary information.

Description:

Robust small area estimation is studied under a simple random effects model consisting of a basic (or fixed effects) model and a linking model that treats the fixed effects as realizations of a random variable. Under this model a model-assisted estimator of a small area mean is obtained. This estimator depends on the survey weights and remains design-consistent. A model-based estimator of its mean squared error (MSE) is also obtained. Simulation results suggest that the proposed estimator and Kott's (1989) model-assisted estimator are equally efficient, and that the proposed MSE estimator is often much more stable than Kott's MSE estimator, even under moderate deviations of the linking model. The method is also extended to nested error regression models.

Description:

Health Reports, published by the Health Analysis Division of Statistics Canada, is a peer-reviewed journal of population health and health services research. It is designed for a broad audience that includes health professionals, researchers, policymakers, and the general public. The journal publishes articles of wide interest that contain original and timely analyses of national or provincial/territorial surveys or administrative databases. New articles are published electronically each month.

Health Reports had an impact factor of 5.0 for 2022 and a five-year impact factor of 5.6. All articles are indexed in PubMed. Our online catalogue is free and receives more than 700,000 visits per year. External submissions are welcome.

Description: Every year, Statistics Canada collects data from hundreds of surveys. As the amount of data gathered increases, Statistics Canada has introduced infographics to help people, business owners, academics, and management at all levels, understand key information derived from the data. Infographics can be used to quickly communicate a message, to simplify the presentation of large amounts of data, to see data patterns and relationships, and to monitor changes in variables over time.

These infographics will provide a quick overview of Statistics Canada survey data.

Description: Statistics Canada regularly prepares presentations with statistical findings about the country’s economy, society and environment. These presentations may be intended for conferences, meetings with stakeholders, or other events held throughout the year to provide Statistics Canada with an opportunity to promote the role of official statistics and to better understand data users’ needs. This series provides online access to these presentations as well as new presentations created to help communicate research findings on a wide range of subjects to a broad audience.

Description: The ‘Eh Sayers’ podcast explores data of interest to Canadians, like social or news-worthy topics. It also aims to foster data literacy and deliver insight into the lives of Canadians by exploring the data the agency produces and tying it to real life situations through storytelling.

Description: This publication provides in-depth analysis and detailed statistics on a variety of topics and issues related to justice and public safety. Topics include crime, victimization, homicide, civil, family and criminal courts, and correctional services. Issues related to community safety, and perceptions of safety are also covered. The publication is intended for those with an interest in Canada's justice and public safety systems as well as those who plan, establish, administer and evaluate programs and projects related to justice and public safety.

Description: The Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series provides for the circulation of research conducted by Analytical Studies Branch staff and collaborators. The Series is intended to stimulate discussion on a variety of topics, such as labour, immigration, education and skills, income mobility, well-being, aging, firm dynamics, productivity, economic transitions, and economic geography. Readers of the Series are encouraged to contact the authors with their comments and suggestions. All the papers in the Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series go through institutional and peer review to ensure that they conform to Statistics Canada's mandate as a governmental statistical agency and adhere to generally accepted standards of good professional practice.

Description: This publication presents key highlights and results from the General Social Survey on the topics of caregiving and care receiving; social identity; giving, volunteering and participating; victimization; time use; and family.

Description: The Prices Analytical Series provides research and analysis pertaining to price indices. The Analytical series is intended to stimulate discussion on a variety of topics related to the analysis of the evolution of prices through time or space.

Description: Economic and Social Reports includes in-depth research, brief analyses, and current economic updates on a variety of topics, such as labour, immigration, education and skills, income mobility, well-being, aging, firm dynamics, productivity, economic transitions, and economic geography. All the papers are institutionally reviewed and the research and analytical papers undergo peer review to ensure that they conform to Statistics Canada's mandate as a governmental statistical agency and adhere to generally accepted standards of good professional practice.

Description: This thematic series groups different statistical products related to ethnicity, languages, and immigration. It features analytical documents of varying scopes, such as population profiles, reference materials, data products (including tables and factsheets), among other document types.