About Income Trends

What's new?
Introduction
Survey design
What you should know

What's new?

2003 Historical revision

Every few years, estimates produced by the combined program of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) and the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) undergo a revision. This year's revision is the result of three modifications.

• All estimates, back to 1990, are adjusted to population projections based on the 2001 Census population counts.
• Starting with 1990's estimates, wages and salaries are benchmarked to the distribution of wages and salaries derived from the T4 statement of remuneration remittance file.
• The 1992-base low income cut-offs (LICOs) themselves have been revised, resulting from a revision of the 1992 Family Expenditure Survey. SLID and SCF estimates were revised from 1980. Along with the two changes described above, this has an impact on levels of low-income statistics.

For more details, see 2003 Historical revision

Introduction

Income Trends in Canada is an extensive collection of income statistics, covering topics such as income distribution, income tax, government transfers, and low income. The data are drawn from two household surveys: the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) and the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Data since 1996 are taken from SLID, while historical data prior to 1996 are drawn from the SCF.

Income Trends in Canada provides a complete list of the tables and directions for getting started. It also contains background information on the survey, its content and methodology, and other SLID data products and services

In addition to provincial detail, many of the tables present estimates for the 15 largest Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs), as follows: Halifax, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, St.-Catharines-Niagara, Hamilton, Kitchener, London, Windsor, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria. Due to sample size limitations and sampling variability, estimates for urban areas are less reliable and are subject to larger errors than provincial and national estimates. Given the variability of the annual estimates, users are cautioned against drawing conclusions from single year-to-year comparisons alone.

Income Trends in Canada uses the Beyond 20/20 Browser software for accessing and manipulating tables.