Publications
2011 General Social Survey : Overview of Families in Canada
Selected Tables on Families in Canada
Selected Tables on Families in Canada
Archived Content
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Table 9 Distribution of the population using contraceptive methods to prevent pregnancy, Canada,2011
Table 10 Sterilization and infertility among Canadians, 2011, 2001 and 1995
Table 15 Distribution of the population by age group and grandparent status, Canada, 2011 and 2001
Table 16 Distribution of grandparents by number of grandchildren, Canada, 2011 and 2001
Text box 1
Methodology
The target population for the GSS is persons 15 years of age and over residing in Canada, excluding the following two groups:
1. Residents of Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories
2. Full-time residents of institutions
All GSS interviews are conducted by telephone. Households without landbased telephones were therefore excluded. In 2010, the proportion of households without telephone service was estimated at 1.1% (Residential Telephone Service Survey [RTSS], December 2010). Interviews were not conducted by cell phone, thus eliminating all individuals who had only cellular service. This group represents 13% of the population (RTSS, December 2010). Survey estimates were weighted to account for persons without telephones.
Data for Cycle 25 of the GSS were collected from February to November 2011 in five (non-overlapping) waves of two months each. The sample was evenly distributed over the 10 months and selected using the Elimination of Non-Working Banks technique, a Random Digit Dialling (RDD) method.
The response rate for Cycle 25 of the GSS was 65.8%. This was based on the 22,435 respondents. Statistical significance testing is available upon request.
Data limitations
It is worth noting that the figures appearing in this publication are estimates based on data collected from a small fraction of the population (roughly one person in 1,250) and are subject to error. There are two types of errors: sampling errors and non-sampling errors.
Sampling error is the difference between an estimate derived from the sample and the one that would have been obtained from a complete census using the same data collection methods. The size of the sampling error can be estimated from the survey results and an indication of the magnitude of this error. If the estimated sampling error is greater than 33% of the estimate, it is considered too unreliable to publish and the symbol "F" is printed in table cells where this occurs. Although not considered too unreliable to publish, estimates with an estimated error between 16.6% and 33.3% are marked "qualified" and used with caution. These are identified with an "E".
All other types of errors, such as coverage, response, processing and non-response errors, are non-sampling errors. It is difficult to identify and evaluate the scope of many of these errors.
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