Box 1  Data and definitions: Geography

Data source

This analysis is based on Statistics Canada’s 2001 Census of Population data tabulated according to drainage sub-basins.  Note that the socioeconomic characteristics are assigned on the basis of where the respondent lives and not on the location of the respondent’s workplace.

Census rural

Statistics Canada defines census rural areas as those outside of urban areas of 1,000 or more inhabitants with a density of 400 or more persons per square kilometre (Statistics Canada, 2002).

Watersheds

Statistics Canada delineates watersheds at varying scales throughout Canada. At the least detailed scale, there are 10 drainage basins that represent the watersheds of Canada’s major rivers such as the St. Lawrence, Mackenzie and Fraser rivers.  At the most detailed scale, there are 1,104 drainage sub-sub-basins.  This bulletin portrays the employment characteristics of the census rural and census urban population for 164 watersheds at the sub-basin level.  Sub-basins represent the drainage areas of the smaller (second tier) rivers that flow into Canada’s major rivers.  The drainage sub-basins will be referred to as watersheds throughout this bulletin.  Note that unlike the earlier Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin (Rothwell, 2006), the socioeconomic data were not calculated separately for each side of the border for those watersheds that straddle provincial and territorial boundaries.  This means that the total number of watersheds appears lower than in the earlier bulletin as the data were not disaggregated by province for this bulletin.

See Map 1 in Rothwell (2006) for a map of the 164 watersheds that are discussed in this bulletin.
  
This bulletin divides watersheds according to the share of the population that is census rural within each watershed.  Throughout the bulletin the following terminology for watersheds is used:

Very highly urban: Less than 10 % of their population designated census rural
Highly urban: 10 % to 24.9 % of their population designated census rural
Moderately urban: 25 % to 49.9 % of their population designated census rural
Moderately rural: 50 % to 74.9 % of their population designated census rural
Highly rural: 75 % or more of their population designated census rural

Box 2  Data and definitions: Employment and labour force

The labour force

Composed of both the employed and unemployed.  It excludes students, homemakers, retired workers, seasonal workers in an "off" season who were not looking for work, and persons who could not work because of a long-term illness or disability.

Labour force activity

Refers to the labour market activity of the population 15 years of age and over in the week (Sunday to Saturday) prior to Census Day, 2001. Respondents were classified as either employed, or unemployed, or as not in the labour force.

Employed

Refers to persons 15 years of age and over, excluding institutional residents, who, during the week (Sunday to Saturday) prior to Census Day, 2001:

(a) did any work at all for pay or in self-employment or without pay in a family farm, business or professional practice;
(b) were absent from their job or business, with or without pay, for the entire week because of a vacation, an illness, a labour dispute at their place of work, or any other reasons.

Experienced labour force

Industry sector and skill level employment characteristics are shown for the experienced labour force aged 25 to 64.  The experienced labour force comprises those who were either employed at the time of the Census or were unemployed but had worked since January 1, 2000.  Data is derived from the 2001 Census of Population.

Industry sector

Based on the 1980 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), the industry sector refers to the general nature of the business carried out in the establishment where the person worked. If the person did not have a job during the week (Sunday to Saturday) prior to the 2001 Census, data relate to the job of longest duration since January 1, 2000. Persons with two or more jobs recorded the job at which they worked the most hours.  For further information on the classification, see Statistics Canada, 1980.
 
The definitions presented here are summarized from Statistics Canada (2002).

Box 3  Data and definitions: Location quotients

A location quotient (LQ) is an index of specialisation or intensity.  It compares the concentration of a particular socioeconomic characteristic in a given location (in this case, a watershed type) with the concentration found in a wider spatial system (in this case, Canada as a whole).  Concentration is defined as the share of the relevant population possessing the particular socioeconomic characteristic.

A watershed with the same share as the national level has a LQ value of 1.

A watershed with a lower share than the national level has a LQ value below 1.

A watershed with a higher share than the national level has a LQ value above 1.