Friday, February 15, 2008

Community Health Indicators

Question

A student wants to get health and economic (income, etc.) indicators for a community, which in this case is a subset of a CMA (meaning a neighbourhood or even a postal code area, etc.). I think that the Community Profiles can be used to get the income information. But, the CCHS seems to only get to the health region level. I'm open to suggestions for which files to check if anyone knows of some!

Answer

You won't be able to get health indicators at lower level because of sample size. You could ask for custom tabulation from Health Division but I pretty sure they won't be able to accommodate but it's worth checking.

Geographic codes in justice files

Question

I have a researcher who would like to link the crime statistics data in the B20/20 justice files to over 500 corresponding census subdivisions. I know that the data in the justice tables is at the detachment level; however, there is a geographic code attached to each detachment which looks census-like. Is there a relationship between the geographic codes in the justice tables and census geography below the provincial level? I suspect that the answer is no but if there is a correspondence, it would make merging the researcher's census data with the crime data a whole lot easier. Any assistance with this would be very much appreciated.

Answer

You were correct, the answer is no. I asked CCJS and the UCR survey managers and analysts have told us that the first two digits are the standard province code in which the detachment resides. The other three digits are sequentially assigned and do not reflect any geographical boundaries census or otherwise. Your researcher should therefore not link these codes to census subdivisions or any other geographic level below the province.

Updated Product - 1996 Census: Low income data at the EA level

Question

1996 Census Low income data at the EA level

A Beyond 20/20 table called Low Income Status for Canada, Provinces and Enumeration Areas, 1996 Census, 20% sample data has been added to the DLI FTP site. This table was produced for the DLI and does not have a catalogue number. We will be receiving an ascii version of this data in the near future.

Note to users: These data on low income cut-off are for 1996 by EA. These data can be used in the context of 1996 only. They should not be compared with data from different censuses. This note also applies to the same data sets for other census years. If a comparison between censuses needs to be done, a custom tabulation needs to be requested. This special tabulation will be based on another variable that uses constant dollars for comparison purposes.

FTP: /dli/census/1996/dimensions-b2020/low_income_status_for_can-etat_du_faible_revenu_pour_le_can
Files :
lico_ea_sfr_sd-1996-ivt.zip
readme_lisezmoi.doc
readme_lisezmoi.pdf

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Companies that bottle BC water

Question

I have a student here wanting to find all companies that export bottled water out of BC (i.e., the actual water comes from BC). Anyone have any ideas?

I can use the NAICS code 312112 (Bottled Water Manufacturing) to search several products to find companies that bottle water, but that doesn't
help us determine which of these use BC water.

Answer

Industry Canada's Canadian Company Capabilities may help in part, since some of the British Columbia-based companies listed state that their water is bottled either in B.C. or at source.

http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/ccc-rec.nsf/en/Home

Educational & Student Data

Question

I have a few students who are working on an academic project where they want to get data on students (in most cases, postsecondary, but also secondary). They have found NELS from ICPSR and this seems to answer a lot of the questions they're looking at (they're investigating things like dropout rates, impact of being an immigrant on student success, etc.). I don't think there is any comparable Canadian studies, but perhaps someone knows of something that I'm missing. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. A couple of the students found the Youth in Transition Survey, but I understand this is not available for download.

Answer

The Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) may have some of the data your students require.

We have microdata files for cycles 1, 2 and 3 of NLSCY but it is my understanding that the population that is in those cycles wouldn't be in high school yet so they probably won't help your students. We also have synthetic files for both NLSCY
(http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/nlscy.htm)
and YITS in the DLI collection, but your students couldn't use these to obtain estimates for analysis as these synthetic files contain modified data. The students would need to prepare computer programs that would be run against the master file by the author division through remote job submission or use the master files through the RDCs if they meet the eligibility criteria.

Your students may wish to consult the publications that are based on the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). You can access many of these from links that are under Links to related products on the left side bar on these pages in the IMDB:

YITS: http://www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=4435&lang=en&db=IMDB&dbg=f&adm=8&dis=2
NLSCY: http://www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=4450&lang=en&db=IMDB&dbg=f&adm=8&dis=2

Some of these publications discuss dropout rates and one of these also compares "high school graduates and dropouts on a number of dimensions, including family background, parental education and occupation, engagement with school, working during high school, peer influence, and educational aspirations" (see "At a Crossroads: First Results for the 18-20-year-old Cohort of the Youth in Transition Survey" for example
http://www.statcan.ca/bsolc/english/bsolc?catno=81-591-X).

Friday, February 8, 2008

Updated Product - Employment Insurance Coverage Survey (EICS)

Employment Insurance Coverage Survey (EICS) 2006 - Public Use Microdata File

The Employment Insurance Coverage Survey provides a meaningful picture of who does or does not have access to EI benefits among the jobless and those in a situation of underemployment. The survey also covers access to maternity and parental benefits.

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/eics/eics2006.htm
FTP: /ftp/dli/eics/2006

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Trade data for sub-provincial geographies

Question

A faculty member here is interested in obtaining international trade flows for South-Western Ontario - does Statistics Canada have these data, and
could a custom tabulation be prepared from them? If not at Statistics Canada, would the CRA collect these (thinking that they might at least have
value of imports by destination and/or exports by origin)? I didn't find sub-provincial geography for trade at Industry Canada either.

I was hoping that the Economic Region would be a sub-provincial level at which data on trade MIGHT be collected.

Answer

Here is the answer we obtained from our contacts in the International Trade Division:

"Unfortunately, trade data by region (i.e., southwestern Ontario) are not available. The lowest level of geography we can provide is Province of
Origin (exports) or Province of Destination (imports). However, custom tabulations could be extracted by Port of Entry/Port of Clearance for the
province of Ontario."

A custom tabulation could be requested if this would be of interest.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Updated Products - Education

Education - Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs for Full-time Students at Canadian Degree-granting Institutions Survey (TLAC)

2006-2007 and 2007-2008 data from the Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs for Full-time Students at Canadian Degree-granting Institutions has been added to the DLI FTP and website. The Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs for Full-time Students at Canadian Degree-granting Institutions Survey was developed to provide student financial information (tuition fees and living accommodation costs) on all universities and degree-granting colleges in Canada.

Note to readers:

The Survey of Tuition and Living Accommodation Costs for Full-time Students at Canadian Degree-granting Institutions (TLAC), which was administered from April to June 2007 to collect data on 2007/2008 tuition fees, has undergone important modifications.

The survey universe was increased from around 60 institutions in previous years to 102 institutions this year. In addition, the program classification, according to which tuition data are obtained, adopted the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) coding.

This new coding structure is now used for all postsecondary surveys and the Census of population. This allows the use of more recent and more accurate university enrolment data, which are also based on CIP, for the calculation of weighted tuition fees. Finally, data on the subject specific tuition fees paid by graduate students are now as detailed as those for undergraduate students.

These changes have a minimal impact on the interprovincial comparability of tuition data. But the comparability of tuition data across fields of programs will be affected. Given that a different subject classification is used, it is impossible to produce weighted average tuitions paid in a manner consistent with previous years.

In some cases (e.g., medicine, education and a few others), the classification remained consistent. For these disciplines, the only factor affecting the comparability of weighted averages to previous years is the number of institutions that provided tuition data.

In other cases (e.g., arts and sciences), the category no longer exists and the tuition for programs under that category may now appear under two or three different categories. It is not possible to map the tuition provided in the new categories to the categories used in preceding years.

All fees are reported in current dollars.

Data shown represent only a portion of all costs incurred for attending university. TLAC is an administrative survey with minimum response burden and resource requirement. Such a survey can only provide a portion of the total real cost of obtaining a university education. Additionally, data in this release do not account for the student financial assistance provided.

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/education.htm
FTP: /ftp/dli/education

Updated Products - ICO

Inter-corporate ownership (ICO) Q4 2007

The Inter-corporate ownership CD ROM (61-517-XCB) is the most authoritative and comprehensive source of information available on corporate ownership, a unique directory of "who owns what" in Canada. It tracks the ownership of the largest Canadian corporations and provides up-to-date information reflecting recent corporate takeovers and other substantial changes. Ultimate corporate control is determined through a careful study of holdings by corporations, the effects of options, insider holdings, convertible shares and interlocking directorships. The information that is presented is based on non-confidential returns filed by Canadian corporations under the Corporations Returns Act. The data are presented in an easy-to-read tiered format, illustrating at a glance the hierarchy of subsidiaries within each corporate structure. The entries for each corporation provide both the country of control and the country of residence.

WEB: http://www.statcan.ca/english/Dli/Data/Ftp/ico.htm
FTP: /ftp/dli/ico_CD

Monday, February 4, 2008

Business register data for partnerships and sole proprietorships

Question

A professor is looking for information on corporations, such as partnerships and sole proprietorships, including revenue, profit, etc. Some of this seems to be collected by the Business Register, but is not reflected in Canadian Business Patterns, which is the main product generated from this register. I am guessing that he will not get this, at least not for free, as I know business data has always been largely outside the DLI, but thought it wouldn't hurt to confirm this?

Answer

After checking with the Business Register Division, the data your client requires would only be available as a fee based custom request. As you indicated, it is not available in Canadian Business Patterns and I do not know of another Statistics Canada source that would provide this data.

For your reference, the Division's reply to your question follows:
"Total revenue and total employment are available as a custom request, and variables such as business type are also available. Note that these are confidential data and do require suppression. We do not have other information such as profit."