Analysis

Description: Reports on Special Business Projects is an occasional series that focuses primarily on the results of special surveys or special projects conducted by the Centre for Special Business Projects. The reports cover a wide range of topics, which include business performance and trends, custom tabulations of business data, economic impact studies, new measurement frameworks and indicators to support program development, monitoring and performance assessment, territorial economic indicators and other special studies.

Description: This study compares the Government of Canada’s direct and indirect measures to support R&D, as captured by business innovation and growth support (BIGS) programs and the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentive program. BIGS and SR&ED are two central instruments that the Canadian government uses to stimulate R&D expenditures in the business sector.

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: Over the last several years, recreational screen time has been increasing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, recreational screen time rose among Canadian youth and adults, and those who increased screen time had poorer self-reported mental health. Using data from the 2017, 2018, and 2021 Canadian Community Health Survey, the objective of this study was to compare recreational screen time behaviours before (2018) and during (2021) the pandemic, looking at patterns by sociodemographic subgroups of the Canadian population.

Description: The availability of measures to operationalize allostatic load—the cumulative toll on the body of responding to stressor demands—in population health surveys may differ across years or surveys, hampering analyses on the entire sampled population. In this study, the impacts of variable selection and calculation method were evaluated to generate an allostatic load index applicable across all cycles of the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS). CHMS data were used to compare individual and population-level changes in scores for allostatic load indexes in which other commonly used measures were substituted for waist-to-hip ratio. Associations between the various constructs and indicators of socioeconomic position were then assessed to evaluate whether relationships were maintained across indexes.

Description: Using the Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, this paper studies the share of spouses or partners of biological or adoptive mothers who claimed or intended to claim parental benefits from 2006 to 2022.

Description: The papers published in the Analysis in Brief analytical series shed light on current economic issues. Aimed at a general audience, they cover a wide range of topics including National Accounts, business enterprises, trade, transportation, agriculture, the environment, manufacturing, science and technology, services, etc.

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: Using the Employment Insurance Coverage Survey, this paper studies the share of spouses or partners of biological or adoptive mothers who claimed or intended to claim parental benefits from 2006 to 2022.

Description: This paper looks at how extreme weather claims have impacted the insurance industry in Canada from 2020 to 2023. A specific focus is given to homeowners insurance, which during this time, homeowners insurance consumer price index exceeded all items inflation. Insurer profitability and consumer impacts are analyzed given the significant uptick in catastrophic claims. All four years analyzed ranked in the top 10 most costly claims years in Canadian history, costing billions each year. In addition, other contributing factors are explored to provide a robust overview of trends in profitability of the insurance industry.

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: The impact on linear statistics of the sample design used in obtaining survey data is the subject of much of sampling literature. Recently, more attention has been paid to the design’s impact on non-linear statistics; the major factor inhibiting these investigations has been the problem of estimating at least the first two moments of such statistics. The present article examines the problem of estimating the variances of non-linear statistics from complex samples, in the light of existing literature. The behaviour of the chi-square statistic computed from a complex sample to test hypotheses of goodness of fit or independence is studied. Alternative tests are developed and their properties studied in simulation experiments.

Description: This paper describes a survey design established to measure truck commodity flows in Peru. The article addresses the conceptual and operational features of the survey design as well as describing its elements and implementation techniques in the context of a pilot project. Finally, the paper illustrates how the results of this pilot might be used to design and implement a full-scale national survey.

Description: The total variance of a survey estimate incorporates sampling variance, simple response variance and correlated response variance. The last component reflects the part of the total variance due to a common influence on a group of respondents. In the Canadian census, self-enumeration was adopted as the standard method of enumeration in the 1971 Census. One factor in favor of introducing this method was evidence, from the 1961 Census, that correlated response variance made an important contribution to the total variance of census estimates. Based on a study conducted using interpenetration of interviewers, this article compares correlated response variances from the 1961, 1971 and 1976 Censuses. The empirical results demonstrate that although the self-enumeration adopted in the 1971 Census did not completely remove the correlated response variance, this approach has considerably reduced the magnitude of this component of variance for almost all the characteristics examined.

Description: This article presents the findings of an experimental design set up to study the variation in refusal rates to the different modules of the physical measures component of the Canada Health Survey. The study indicated that interviewer teams have a significant impact on refusal rates. Also, a large proportion of the refusals was due to total family refusals rather than individual refusals within responding families.

Description: Raking ratio estimators give estimates of the population values of characteristics examined on a sample basis utilizing the row and column totals of a contingency table of characteristics examined on a 100% basis. In this paper, the asymptotic variance of the maximum likelihood estimator of a sample characteristic subject to the marginal constraints of the above contingency table is derived. From this, we are able to compute the loss in efficiency of the raking ratio estimators relative to the maximum likelihood estimator in an empirical study.

Description:

This paper advances the case that administrative records are a powerful source of statistics and in support of this conclusion provides an overview of the extensive utilization in Canada of administrative records for statistical purposes. The paper discusses recent developments and the changing environment which are seen as major determinants of both the creation of administrative data bases as well as their utilization. The capabilities of the computer, combined with the extensive demand for statistics and the limited financial resources available to meet that demand, are seen as combining to lead to more extensive use of administrative records. A variety of problems associated with the use of administrative records is specified and the development of strategies to meet these problems and permit utilization of administrative records is described. Recent developments in Canada intended to support the use of administrative records are indicated.

Description:

Non-response exists in any survey, but its magnitude depends upon the type of survey, the interviewers’ ability to conduct an interview, and the respondents’ motivation to respond to survey questions. This paper discusses non-response in relation to a number of household surveys and in particular the behaviour of non-response rates over time in a continuous survey such as the Canadian Labour Force Survey.

A profile of interviewers employed by Statistics Canada shows that the correlation between non-response and a number of interviewer characteristics is not significant. Respondents themselves, and their motivation, are the key elements in an interview process and therefore in respondent relations.

This article draws on the results of various studies conducted to investigate the effects of response burden, choice of respondent and response incentives to provide some insight into the characteristics of non-respondents.

Description:

Madow [1968] has proposed a two-phase sampling scheme under which response bias can be eliminated from sample surveys by obtaining “true” values for a subsample of the original sample. Often in cases of Censuses or ongoing surveys, the subsample data are not used to correct the main survey estimates but to assess their reliability. The main purpose of this paper is to present methods by which reliability estimates can be obtained when true values can be determined for a subsample of units.

Description:

Random rounding is a technique to ensure confidentiality of aggregate statistics. By randomly rounding all the components of a total, independently, together with the random rounding of the total itself, substantial discrepancies may arise when aggregating the published data. This paper presents a procedure which avoids substantial discrepancies while still protecting the concept of confidentiality.

Description: Reports on Special Business Projects is an occasional series that focuses primarily on the results of special surveys or special projects conducted by the Centre for Special Business Projects. The reports cover a wide range of topics, which include business performance and trends, custom tabulations of business data, economic impact studies, new measurement frameworks and indicators to support program development, monitoring and performance assessment, territorial economic indicators and other special studies.

Description: The papers published in the Analysis in Brief analytical series shed light on current economic issues. Aimed at a general audience, they cover a wide range of topics including National Accounts, business enterprises, trade, transportation, agriculture, the environment, manufacturing, science and technology, services, etc.

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: Short and focused data tables related to current events.

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: 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: 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: 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 insights on housing data and analysis at Statistics Canada. Readers can access in-depth information on the latest housing data released by the Agency. The series relies on both descriptive and analytical methods to analyze administrative and survey data sets that relate to housing.

Description: This series provides detailed documentation on income developments, including survey design issues, data quality evaluation and exploratory research.