About Income Trends

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

What's new?

Classification changes

Periodically, Statistics Canada introduces new classification systems. These new systems result from a need to reflect changes in social and economic circumstances, such as the growth of the high tech industries; or from the need to develop internationally compatible classification systems.

Starting this year (2004), the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics adopted Statistics Canada's new classification systems for industry and occupation, using the North American Industry Classification System 2002 (NAICS2002) and the National Occupational Classification - Statistical 2001 (NOC-S) respectively. These changes have the following impact on SLID data:

• The changes in industry classification led to reclassification within the construction industry, and within the information and cultural industry, but did not change aggregate industry level statistics for these two industries. None of the other 14 industries were affected.
• The changes in occupation classification were primarily focused on occupations concentrated within the information technology field, where much greater detail and precision is now possible. As well, certain occupation codes which were determined to have similar duties and responsibilities have been combined to form groups that are more homogeneous in nature.

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.