Education Indicators in Canada: Handbook for the Report of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program June 2020

Introduction

This handbook updates the general descriptions for the indicators of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program (PCEIP) as new sets of tables are released. It is a reference document that gives readers a broad understanding of each indicator, rather than the very specific methodological descriptions that would be necessary to reproduce the indicator using the raw data.

The PCEIP tables highlight the most recent data available for five broad indicator sets:

1. A portrait of the school-age population
2. Financing education systems
3. Elementary and secondary education
4. Postsecondary education
5. Transitions and outcomes.

The following information forms the main body of the Handbook, and is presented for each of the PCEIP indicators:

• A brief, general description.
• The major concepts and definitions used.
• An overview of the methodology.
• A short review of any major data limitations, including interjurisdictional comparability as needed.
• The data source(s) used to produce the indicator.

An appendix that presents the structure of education and training in Canada concludes the Handbook.

Table of contents

Section A: A portrait of the school-age population

Section B: Financing education systems

Section C: Elementary-secondary education

Section D: Postsecondary education

Section E: Transitions and outcomes

Appendix 1: Structure of education and training in Canada

Project Team

Acronyms and abbreviations

Note to readers on gender variable

This variable is obtained through administrative data shared with Statistics Canada by other organizations. Hence, it is possible that sometimes the only information available is “Sex at birth” in which case it is used as a proxy for “Gender.” Also, some organizations include “Non-binary genders” in the “Unknown gender” category for the gender variable provided in their files which makes it impossible to publish data on non-binary population. Statistics Canada and the Canadian Government tries to make our gender data as inclusive as possible and we will keep working with our data provider to maximize alignment with the new recommended standard on gender.