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Income Trends in Canada 1976 to 2006
Archived Content
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Introduction
What you should know
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 prior to 1996 are drawn from the Survey of Consumer Finances. Beginning with 1996, the data are taken from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics(SLID).
Data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) undertook major changes this year. Four years were added to the historical data from 1976 to 1979. Also, SCF data was adapted as much as possible to concepts of the SLID. Some concepts were almost identical between the two surveys, such as income data for which changes were minimal. However, other concepts differed and thus some variables were modified. For example, the SCF “head of family” was replaced with the SLID “major income earner”. As a result, variables related to family characteristics were affected by this change. For further information about the transformation of SCF data and on its impacts on estimates see section Notes and definitions – Comparisons between data up to 1995 and data since 1996.
All income estimates are expressed in constant 2006 dollars to factor in inflation and allow for comparisons across time in real terms.
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.
