Friday, October 23, 2009

Looking for Very High Income Canadians

Question

A group of students is looking for information on very high income Canadians – annual income of $2 million or more. Is there any resource (not necessarily StatCan based) which would provide access to this? I suggested that housing value might be used as a proxy – but even then, the StatCan data is often capped.

Answer

This information may be available as a custom request from the Census. If the students would like to look into this option, I will be happy to refer you to an account-Executive in our Toronto regional office.

Additional Resources

Emmanuel Saez & Michael R. Veall, 2003. "The Evolution of High Incomes in Canada, 1920-2000," Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population Research Reports 382, McMaster University. [Downloadable!]

E. Saez and M.R. Veall, "The Evolution of High Incomes in North America: Lessons from Canadian Evidence," American Economic Review, 2005.

Taxfiler data is used.

Question About Blueberries

Question

A student is wondering why the cash receipts for blueberries is consistently recorded as 0 in the second quarter of each year in CANSIM table 002-0002.

I have no explanation, other than that receipts might be tied to when the berries are produced.

Any explanation would be welcomed.

Answer

We received the following explanation from the author division:

"Cash Receipts are tied to the when the berries are marketed by the producers.  For this commodity, there are no marketings by the producers in the 2nd quarter."

Please don't hesitate to let me know if you need additional information.

Licensing Question

Question

A group of students is doing a project for a Business School course here at Western. The project consists of examining a business problem for an existing business, and offering data-based resolutions to the business. In this specific case, they wish to do market research.

So, working through the flow chart:

-I assume that I will be able to find them the data they need from the DLI collection (I meet with them Wednesday) >> approved

-They are authorised (students) >> approved

-To be used for academic purposes >> approved – kind of, depending on the next question

-But then what (if anything) can they give to the business (which is a requirement of the project)?

Answer

Since this is an assignment they have to do within their course, this falls within the license. They can use the data to do their work but they cannot share the data with the business. They can certainly share their analysis, this is no problem but they cannot provide the business with the data sets they used to do their analysis. The idea is that results/analysis can be shared and make public so that everyone can profit from the analysis.

I should may add one point to clarify:

The results can't be used only privately by the business unless the data are purchased. If the business doesn't want to have the analysis made public or shared, they would have to buy the data to be used from StatCan and then have the students do the analysis.

Additional Question

I’m a little unclear now as to the circumstances under which the students can give the report to the company.

How could/should the students make the report public or shared in order to give it to the company? I certainly expect that it will be given to the professor for evaluation together with the company, but suspect that that would be insufficient. Would a policy of dissemination on demand be sufficient – i.e., if they or the professor are asked for it, they would give it to other people in addition to the company? Would it need to be more active dissemination?

Answer

We had the same sort of situation here at Queen’s.  What ended up happening is that the products of the students’ work (various reports that used DLI data) were put up on a departmental ‘working paper’ site that was open to the world.  Just the reports – no data.  The local agencies that prompted these research efforts can tap into the working paper site, but so can everyone else.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Stats on Musicians

Question

I have a student looking for the number of independent Canadian musicians who have released a CD in the last 10 years or so. She is looking for numbers of people who are not with a major record label, but essentially have created the CD on their own and may or may not have deposited the CD with Library and Archives Canada.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Answer

This is the answer we got from the author division concerning your questions on Stats on musicians:

“Unfortunately we do not measure specific data related to the number of releases from "independent" Canadian musicians vs. those represented by a major label - we don't survey Canadian musicians specifically. Our industry based survey collects financial and characteristic data from companies classified as record producers, music publishers, sound recording studios and the likes.

Although we don't have the exact information requested below, I have attached a copy of our most recent data release (ry2007) in case there is some other information that may be beneficial to your contact. We have data regarding the number of releases by Canadian vs.non-Canadian artists as well as number of releases by musical category and there is also a profile of Canadian vs. foreign controlled record labels.”

Hope this will help.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Kidney Diseases

I received the following question off-list and am sharing it as it may be of interest to others.

Question:

"I have an upper undergrad looking for statistics on kidney diseases and/or hemodialysis on the provincial level. Have searched CANSIM and found Table 102-0563 Leading Causes of Death (prov), Table 102-0534 Diseases of the Genitourinary System (at Canada level), as well as tables for primary sites of cancer, including kidney. (CIHI has some info). Is there somewhere else I should look?"


Answer:

"You seem to have found most of the products we have on this topic.
You can locate a few more CANSIM tables that have statistics on kidney related cancer/diseases or deaths by running a search for "kidney" in CANSIM (use the search box in the middle of the screen): http://cansim2.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-win/CNSMCGI.pgm?LANG=Eng&Dir-Rep=CII/&CNSM-Fi=CII/CII_1-eng.htm .

Some of our older National Population Health Survey (NPHS) public use microdata files seem to have a province of residence variable and variables dealing with kidney disease or cancer. You student may want to have a look at these if he/she wishes to work with microdata. For example:

National Population Health Survey, 1998-1999: Household Component - Health file

FH_8_16H Mother's type of cancer - kidney
FH_8_26D Father's type of cancer - kidney
FH_8_36H Sister's type of cancer - kidney
FH_8_38D Brother's type of cancer - kidney

National Population Health Survey, 1996-1997: Health Institutions Component file
:
CCI6_1Q Suffers from kidney failure or disease

National Population Health Survey, 1994-1995: Health Institutions Component file:
CHRQ44_P Kidney failure, disease diagnosed by health professional

(The more recent NPHS synthetic files in our collection may have similar variables but the student couldn't use the data they contain for analysis and would need to have the data extracted through our Health Statistics Division by remote job submission. The synthetic NPHS files in our collection could only be used by the student to run and test the programs that would be run in Ottawa by the author division.)

As you have noted, CIHI has quite a few recent provincial-level statistics on kidney related diseases on their website (http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page=statistics_results_topic_dialysis_e&cw_topic=Health%20Conditions&cw_subtopic=Dialysis).

The Canadian Health Measures Survey (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5071?=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2) seems to include at least one question on kidney diseases (OHR_Q23 Do you have kidney disease that requires dialysis?) but this data doesn't appear to have been released at this time."

Dwelling Characteristics and Household Equipment by Size of Area of Residence for Canada

Question

Good morning,

We would like to ask whether this product is available as a standard product through DLI (cross tabulating dwelling characteristics and household equipment and size of area of residence) http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?lang=eng&catno=62F0045X

I was able to find the following which have one other of the variables, but not together.

Summary tables:

http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/famil09a-eng.htm

CANSIM tables:

Survey of Household Spending (SHS), household equipment at the time of interview, by province, territory and selected metropolitan areas, annual, 1997 to 2007 203-0020

Survey of household spending (SHS), dwelling characteristics at the time of interview, by province, territory and selected metropolitan areas, annual, 1997 to 2007 203-0019



Answer

This table is available in the Survey of Household Spending page on DLI website at  http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/shs-edm/shs-edm2007-eng.htm (the last standard table in the list) and under /DissFTP/dli/shs- Survey of Household Spending/2007/data/shs2007-62f0041-45-housing-xls-tables/ on the FTP site.

Young Offender Statistics from 1984 to 1991

Question

I was able to download young offender statistics from the ftp for the years1991 to 2007. I'm looking for any young offender statistics from 1984 to1991 (even if they are not comparable to the 1991 to 2007 young offender statistics). Specifically I'm looking for sentencing patterns, gender/age distribution, comparison of violent crime. Basically anything that shows how the administration has dealt with young offenders.

If you have any information, please let me know.

Answer

The following CANSIM tables may be of interest. You can download them for free through E-STAT (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/estat/licence-eng.htm).

• Homicide survey, victims and persons accused of homicide, by age group and sex, Canada, annual (number), 1974 to 2007 (CANSIM Table 253-0003) http://cansim2.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-win/CNSMCGI.PGM

• Adult and youth charged, by detailed offences, annual (number), 1977 to 2008 (CANSIM Table 252-0014) http://cansim2.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-win/CNSMCGI.PGM

The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics tells me that more young offender statistics would be available for a fee as a custom extraction. I will be happy to refer you to an Account-Executive if you would like to discuss the production of specific tables. The Account-Executive could also provide cost estimates for the tables.

Historical statistics will also be available in print publications such as the ones listed below. The researcher or student should be able to order these through inter-library loan or consult them on site in a local library if they aren't in your collection.

Print publications (a few examples):

Youth court statistics, preliminary tables ... / prepared by Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics = Statistiques sur les tribunaux de la jeunesse, tableaux préliminaires ... / Centre canadien de la statistique juridique
85-522 1984/85; 85-522 1985/86; 85-522 1986/87; 85-522 1987/88; 85-522 1988/89; 85-522 1989/90; 85-522 1990/91

The Young offender in Canada, a statistical profile for ..., preliminary data = Le jeune contrevenant au Canada, un profil statistique pour l'année ..., données préliminaires.
STC2241 1984/85; STC2241 1985/86 ; STC2241 1986/87; STC2241 1987/88; STC2241 1988/89

Violent offence cases heard in youth courts, 1990-91 / Jeffrey Frank.
Juristat. Vol. 11, no. 16. 0715-271X (85-002-XPE)

Sentencing in youth courts, 1984-85 to 1988-89.
Juristat. Vol. 10, no. 1. 0715-271X (85-002-XPE)

Violent offences by young offenders, 1986-87 to 1988-89
Juristat. Vol. 10, no. 5. 0715-271X (85-002-XPE)

Youth crime in Canada, 1986-1988.
Juristat. Vol. 10, no. 12. 0715-271X (85-002-XPE)

Decisions and dispositions in youth court, 1986/87 to 1989/90.
Juristat. Vol. 10, no. 19. 0715-271X (85-002-XPE)

Looking for Survey Data

Question

I have, unsuccessfully to this point, been looking for survey data that examines the relationship between citizen’s and the police. Specifically I am looking for data that examines the relationship between the public’s perception of the legitimacy of the police and their perceptions of personal and “vicarious” experiences with police use of coercive force. So far my personal research has led to several private surveys that have addressed this issue but nothing that has been publicly published. Based on this, I would also be interested in looking at any other data that addresses the  procedural model of regulation as proposed by Tyler and Huo (2002) and immediate compliance with the Criminal Justice System.


Answer

Some General Social Survey (GSS) cycles have variables on experiences with and perceptions of police.  Some of these may also be applicable to research on the process-based model of regulation the student mentions. Here are a few examples of the types of variables found in GSS cycles. You can see the full variable descriptions through Nesstar or the survey's documentation on our web and FTP sites.

Dataset: General Social Survey, Cycle 18, [Canada] 2004: Victimization,  Incident File

Variable CIR_Q560 : How satisfied were you with the actions that the police took (Literal Question How satisfied were you with the actions that the police took? Were you:)

Variable CIR_MAIN_REASONC : Main reason for NOT reporting to the police collapsed. (Literal Question What was the main reason?)

Dataset: General Social Survey, Cycle 18, [Canada] 2004: Victimization, Main File

Variable PHR_Q210 : Do you think your local police force does a good job, an ave (Literal Question Do you think your local police force does a good job, an average job or a poor job:  ... of enforcing the laws)

Variable DIS_POLC : In what types of situations have you experienced discriminat (Literal Question: In what types of situations have you experienced discrimination (in the past 5 years)? Was it: when dealing with the police or courts?)

Dataset: General Social Survey, Cycle 3, 1988 [Canada]: Personal Risk

Variable A7B : Local police: responding to calls (Literal Question Do you think that your local police force does a good job, an average job, or a poor job of promptly responding to calls?)

Variable A7C : Local police: being approachable (Literal Question Do you think that your local police force does a good job, an average job, or a poor job of being approachable and easy to talk to?)

Dataset: General Social Survey, Cycle 13, 1999 [Canada]: Victimization Incident File

Variable V58E : No contact police..didnt want get involved (Literal Question easons why some people choose not to contact the police. Was it ... Because you did not want to get involved with police?)

Variable V58V59 : Main reason victim didn't contact police

These publications, based on GSS data, touch on perceptions of police and may also be of interest to the student:

Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect

Question

I have a researcher who is looking for the data file from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect. Has anyone worked with this file before or know where we can get the dataset??


Answer

This study doesn't appear in our listing of surveys and statistical programs (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/indexA-eng.htm) which leads me to believe that it is run out of another organisation.

Part of Statistics Canada's "Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile, 2001". however discusses this study and may be of interest to the researcher (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-224-x/85-224-x2001000-eng.pdf).

I found a contact for the study on the Public Health Agency of Canada website (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/cm-vee/cishl01/index-eng.php, scroll to the very bottom of the page). This contact information was posted online a few years ago but it may still be accurate.

Child Maltreatment Division
A.L. 0701D
HPB Bldg #7, Tunney's Pasture
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0L2
Telephone: (613) 957-4689
Fax: (613) 941-9927
Web Site: www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/cm-vee

Number of Charitible Organizations

Question

I’ve been asked for the number of charitable organizations in BC.
The Canada Revenue Agency has a charities database at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/chrts/menu-eng.html. If you click on Advanced Search, you can search by Charity Status (i.e., Canadian Registered Charities) and Province. The results list gives you the number of results (and the actual list of the charities).
Does anyone see a problem with using this number? I tried to find some summary statistics on the CRA site, but no luck.

I should note that this is a follow-up for a question on our provincial chat reference, and the student is from a non-DLI institution.


Answer

The following tables from Cornerstones of Community: Highlights from the National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations (61-533-XIE) (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=61-533-XIE?=eng) may also be of interest to the student:

Table 1.10 Nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by province or territory, Canada, 2003 (p.20)

Table 1.11 Charitable status of nonprofit and voluntary organizations, by province or territory, Canada, 2003 (p.20)

Occupation Question (female artists)

Question

A Researcher would like to know the number of women artists, between the ages of 55 -65, who live alone.

I have found the following 2006 Topic Based Tabulation will give me the number of female “Painters, sculptors and other visual artists” within the desired age range:

9 - Occupation - National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2006 (720C), Sex (3) and Selected Demographic, Cultural, Labour Force, Educational and Income Characteristics (273) for the Population 15 Years and Over

Is there any way to get the number of these females who also live alone?


Answer

This information would be available as a custom table (for a fee). I would be pleased to refer you to an Account-Executive in our Vancouver office if this is of interest to the researcher. The Account-Executive would be in a position to provide a cost estimate.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Post Secondary Students and Dependents

Question
We are looking for an "education survey" which provides the following information:

1. students with dependents while they are studying

2. source of financing for tuition or at least loan or no loan.

Answer
The National Graduates Survey (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/ngs-end-eng.htm) covers both of these topics.

Here are a few of the variables I identified by browsing the codebook for the Follow-up of Graduates Survey; Class of 2000 PUMF (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/ngs-end/fog-sad2000-eng.htm).
There are additional similar variables in the codebook.

Variable Name: FDEQ02P Position: 229 Length: 1
Do you have any dependent children? (Note: This variable doesn't seem to specify "while they were studying" however.)

Variable Name: SL_Q01A Position: 100 Length: 1
What were your two main sources of funding for all of your post-secondary education...? Parents

Variable Name: SL_Q01B Position: 101 Length: 1
What were your two main sources of funding for all of your post-secondary education...? Spouse / partner

Variable Name: SL_Q01D Position: 102 Length: 1
What were your two main sources of funding for all of your post-secondary education...? Government student loans

Variable Name: SL_Q01E Position: 103 Length: 1
What were your two main sources of funding for all of your post-secondary education...? Bank / other institution loans

Variable Name: SL_Q01H Position: 104 Length: 1
What were your two main sources of funding for all of your post-secondary education...? Employment earnings

(...)
For a detailed description of the National Graduates Survey, your user may also wish to consult the Definitions, Data Sources and Methods section of the Statistics Canada website: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5012?=en&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2 You can also identify publications, Daily releases and studies based on this survey by using the links under Links to related products on the left side bar on that page.

I hope that this is helpful.

DLI mirror site

Question

I have been trying to access the Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey 2008 on the DLI mirror site at UAlberta and cannot seem to connect; I am using Filezilla.

Any suggestions on what to do next?

Answer

Filezilla and Winscp can both be used to download from stcftp and the DLI mirror site at UAlberta, however I have heard that Winscp is easier to configure for sftp.

One other thing I should mention about Filezilla, if there are French accents in the path or filename sometimes Filezilla will produce the following error message:

....
no such file or directory
Error: Failed to retrieve directory listing
....

To fix this problem, please try the following in Filezilla:

Under File ---> Site Manager --> Charset

click on "use custom charset" and enter: iso8859-1

I hope this helps.

Numbers of Homeless

Question

I remember there being talk about data being collected on the number of homeless people during one of our Census talks. Is this type of information available somewhere? We have a Grad student looking for any information from 1995 onwards.

Answer

A description of the availability of data on homeless people from the 2006 Census follows. I will look into the availability of data on homeless people from the 2001 and 1996 Census and will follow up with more information as soon as possible.

For 2006:
"The 2006 Census did not conduct a specific count of homeless people as it is extremely difficult to count people who do not have a permanent address. Statistics Canada made all reasonable efforts to count the homeless population in the 2006 Census, however it is expected that some persons were missed and not counted (ex. - those who slept outdoors).

The 2006 Census enumerated people in shelters, an important component of the homeless population, but certainly not the entire population. Others may have been enumerated in a number of different places including with family and friends or in other types of collective dwellings (e.g., hotels, motels, YM/YWCAs, etc.). As such it is not possible to identify from the census these homeless people. As well, the census count of persons in places classified as shelters does not represent the total population of persons who slept in a shelter on the night of May 15-16. In some cases, persons temporarily residing in shelters would have been enumerated at their usual place of residence.

Prior to Census Day, Statistics Canada compiled lists of shelters across Canada, using contacts and lists from social service agencies, municipal, provincial and territorial authorities to make it easier to identify homeless shelters as distinct from other types of collective dwellings. On Census Day, a representative from Statistics Canada met with a contact person from each shelter to ensure that all persons staying at the shelter overnight on May 15 were counted. The eight questions on the short questionnaire were completed, where possible. For those who did not fill in the short questionnaire themselves, the contact person completed the questionnaire using administrative records.

A count of homeless people in Canada is not available from the 2006 Census. In preparation for the 2011 Census, efforts will continue to better identify and classify homeless people, including those who spend Census Day under bridges and on the street."

When I looked into this, our contacts sent us links to the following summary table (http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/famil62a-eng.htm) and topic-based tabulation (http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/english/census06/data/topics/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?ALEVEL=3&APATH=3&CATNO=97-554-XCB2006054&DETAIL=0&DIM=&DS=99&FL=0&FREE=0&GAL=&GC=99&GK=NA&GRP=0&IPS=97-554-XCB2006054&METH=0&ORDER=&PID=93192&PTYPE=88971&RL=0&S=1&ShowAll=&StartRow=&SUB=&Temporal=2006&Theme=69&VID=&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=).

Researchers may also find it helpful look at the Census Dictionary definition for Collective Dwellings (http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/english/census06/reference/dictionary/dwe002.cfm - click on More information on Collective dwelling).

Additional Information
This follows the 2006 Census information in my previous message. For the 2001 Census, I located the following information in the dlilist archives (Fri, 9 Sep 2005):
"The Census, for the first time in 2001, attempted to get some population counts for persons without a fixed place of residence. The homeless proponent was investigated in the large urban centres of Canada.

There are some strict reservations about using the data collected. Only one report was created and it is available on the Census web site at the following address: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/coll/contents.cfm

This cautionary note accompanies the data:

In view of the classification issues related to collective dwellings and the census concepts related to usual place of residence, care must be taken in interpreting the data on the census population enumerated in shelters. The census count of the population in shelters should not be interpreted as a count of the "homeless" since homeless persons may well have been enumerated in other types of collective dwellings e.g. hotels, motels, YM/YWCAs, etc. Furthermore, the census count of persons in places classified as shelters does not represent the total population of persons who slept in a shelter on Census Day, since in some cases persons temporarily residing in shelters would have been enumerated at their usual place of residence."
A PDF of the report is available at: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/coll/pdf/96F0030XIE2001004.pdf

According to page 3 of the report, "For the 2001 Census a new category, “Shelters”, was added to the types of collective dwellings in order to potentially better identify the population in shelters. This category includes emergency or temporary accommodation for persons who may have no other usual place of residence, facilities for abused women/partners and their children, halfway houses and other shelters with some form of assistance. In previous censuses the shelter population was included as part of several broad categories of collectives. (...)"

A cautionary note regarding data on the population in shelters follows on the same page.

Table 2 (Population in shelters, by age group and sex, Canada, provinces, territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations, 2001 Census—100% data*) of the report includes data for Toronto.

Block-face data

Question

Is it possible to purchase block-face data?
There is an area of Montreal which is currently “gentrifying” – but it is part of an former industrial area and the DA is almost the entire CT – so the students from Urban Planning are hoping to get shape-files and block face data since 1996. Possible? Expensive??

Answer
I spoke with an Account-Executive and a Custom Product Consultant about your question and they indicated that it may be possible to purchase block-face data as a custom service if the area of interest has a population of 100 or more. The minimum cost would be $1200. Shape files would not be available but a representative point file could be provided. Please let me know if the students wish to look into this custom service option and I will refer you to an Account-Executive in our Montreal Regional Office.

Suppressed dissemination areas

Question

A UBC researcher has asked about a number of dissemination areas in the Vancouver CMA that are missing from the DA Profile table. Both he and I have looked at population counts; the counts for DAs on his list range from 396 to 3067 and the numbers of occupied dwellings range from 138 to 1385. These numbers are from GeoSuite 2006. They all exceed the 40 households / 250 persons suppression rules.

He has asked where he can find an explanation for the missing areas. I checked several DAs on the reference maps. Two DAs appear to contain student residences here at UBC; another one with a population of 2795 is in an area where many condominiums have been built in recent years.

Is it possible to find an explanation?

Here is his list of missing DAs

59150648
59150851
59150940
59150946
59150947
59151466
59152391
59153169
59153465
59153481
59153585
59153616
59153695

Thanks for any help you can provide. I will be interested in the reasons.

Answer

Our Census Consultants have indicated that "Simply put, the suppression is due to poor data quality caused by a high non-response rate in these areas." They also provided this detailed explanation:

"These DAs have data quality flags that can lead to suppression. Data quality indicators, or data quality flags, are attached to each geographic area disseminated. The 5-digit flag can be seen directly in the Beyond 20/20 browser, and is indicated by notes and symbols in HTML products. The second and fourth positions indicate the data quality flag for 2A and 2B data respectively. A flag of 0 is the default. Flag 1 indicates a global non-response rate higher than or equal to 5% and less than 10%. Flag 2 indicates a global non-response rate higher than or equal to 10% but less than 25%. For both of these cases, data are disseminated but should be used with the appropriate caution. Flag 3 indicates a global non-response rate greater than or equal to 25% and data for these areas are suppressed because the data quality is deemed too poor to be reliable. I checked the cumulative profile product at the DA level (which I also suspect is what your client is looking at) and all of these DAs are suppressed correctly as noted above.

For complete suppression lists please see the following link: http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/ref/notes/index-eng.cfm
From the Census Home Page select Reference materials > Notes > Dissemination area suppression list including census subdivisions in which they are located - 100% data or Dissemination area suppression list including census subdivisions in which they are located - 20% sample data"
I hope that this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Aboriginal identity population

Question

I am looking for Total population, Aboriginal identity population by Census subdivision (CSD) for Alberta.

Answer
I believe that the following 2006 Census table has the information you need (Total population, Aboriginal identity population by CSD for Alberta): Aboriginal identity population by age groups, median age and sex, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories, and census subdivisions (municipalities) - 20% sample data

To get to this table:
Go to http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/highlights/Aboriginal/index.cfm?Lang=E
Under Table 1 - Census subdivisions (CSDs) - Municipalities, click on: By province or territory - All CSDs with an Aboriginal identity population of 250-plus

You may also want to refer your user to the "Note to readers" found in the Daily release for this data (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080115/dq080115a-eng.htm). It has some important information regarding how the Aboriginal identity population was counted.

Inconsistency in Questionnaires for 1991 Health and Activities Limitation Study

Question

A sharp-eyed work study student (who I’m sadly losing to a job at Université d’Ottawa) noticed a discrepancy between the French and English questionnaires for variable H13 (page 51) in the 1991 HALS.

In the French version of the questionnaire, the interviewer instructions are “Lisez la liste”, while the English instructions are “Do not read list”.

Which is correct? If both were, should a note be put on the file to indicate this discrepancy in collection instructions for this variable?

Answer

Unfortunately, the Division has confirmed that what you did find in the English and French instruction for HALS 1991 was what was done and we will add a note on the file to made the uses aware of this of this discrepency.

Thanks for pointing this out to us.

Real estate property database

Question

Hi,
I have a question from a research about an accessible real estate property database that he thinks exist for Canada.  I have found something similar for regions of the United States but not for Canada.  Any suggestions?


Answer
It may be the Canadian Real Estate Association[CREA] databases hosted by the Conference Board of Canada.

Here are descriptions found at: http://www.conferenceboard.ca/products/economic_data.aspx

CREA I.
Starting at $365 per year for a single user.
Canadian Real Estate Association’s MLS database and reports, which contain nearly 3,000 residential housing market time series, are reliable indicators of resale housing market activity across Canada (updated monthly).

CREA II
$5875 per year
Canadian Real Estate Association’s MLS database contains 450,000 residential housing market time series at the neighbourhood level for 16 key regional markets across Canada (updated monthly).

CMHC
Starting at $3.08 per series - volume discounts are also available
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s database contains more than 4,000 time series on the Canadian housing market, such as average rents, completions by dwelling type, mortgage loan approvals (updated immediately upon release).

2006 Census at block level

Question

A researcher requires Census data at the Block level. In addition to population and dwelling counts, he would like sex and age data, by block, and other information about the buildings.  The researcher has identified the set of Victoria CT's and DA of interest.

"Here is the data request, in the researcher's own words:

I have developed a “wish list” of spatial data for the segment of downtown Victoria shown on that map. The attributes of these data are detailed below, and I would like to know whether the McPherson Library via, the DLI, could supply some or all of them. I would require them in an ArcGIS useable form.

The attributes of interest within the study area are:

a. Per city block - Total population, within age, sex (and SES, if possible)

b. Regarding properties
- Legal/street address
- PID
- Mailing Address Postal Code ¨C not really necessary, but perhaps useful
- Zoning
- City block reference lines

c. Per building:
- Construction completion date
- # Dwelling Units
- Footprint area
- Height
- # of stories"

This is what I think I understand so far:
-block level pop and dwelling counts (but not age & sex) are available in the Geographic Attribute File and in GeoSuite
-for all other census characteristics (includig age and sex), the lowest level of geography available to the DLI is the Dissemination Area.
-census boundary files are available for dissemination blocks

Please advise me how best to direct the researcher.


Answer

You are absolutely right in what can be obtained at block level and what can be obtained at DA level. He may be able to get the number of dwelling by type of dwellings at the DA level but because of rounding and suppression, the information may, in some cases, not be what the researcher expects.

There is also a variable that indicates the structural type of dwelling (see http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/english/census06/reference/dictionary/dwe013.cfm) the period of construction, and other characteristics (see http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/english/census06/reference/dictionary/dwetoc.cfm) but this is it.

Hope this helps

University Retention Statistics

Question

Hello all, I'm wondering if anyone can help with this.

Regarding the lit review I am doing, it would be useful if I can find any existing data (Ontario/Canada/International) on: the impact on student recruitment and retention of job placements, practicums and co-op placements either paid or unpaid.

I'm on holidays, so I'm taking the easy way out on this one ;-)


Answer

Couple links that could be of interest.


http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?catno=81-600-X&chropg=1?=eng

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/bsolc/olc-cel/olc-cel?lang=eng&catno=81-003-X19940011789

Imports of Toxic Waste

Question

A researcher here is looking for data on the import of Toxic Waste into Canada – I suspect that either dollar value or volume would be good, but probably volume would be preferred (as without a price index, dollar value doesn’t give too much information).
Any ideas? The World Trade Database doesn’t seem to break waste out in this manner …


Answer

I found this on the OECD site: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/22/59/41878217.xls. See Table 3.

Urban Areas/ Rural Areas - PCCF

Question

I have a question regarding the Urban Areas Rural Areas (UARA) code field in the Postal Code Conversion File. A researcher would like to find out the best way to determine whether a postal code is rural or urban. He wanted to use the UARA field, but is unclear about what a "0" value means. In the guide it states that "This field will be '0000' for postal codes linked to dissemination areas only (Rep_Point = 3)." Would these be rural, urban or either? When looking at the PCCF file there are a lot of postal codes with 0's in the UARA.

Would it be better to use the fact that rural postal codes have a "0" in the 2nd digit of the FSA? Would it be more accurate to use the DMT (Delivery Mode Type) field and assume that it is rural when DMT=H or DMT=W?

I realize that Canada Post and Statistics Canada may have different definitions of rural. The researcher would prefer to use Statistics Canada's definition as they will be linking their research records to census dissemination area data.

Any help with this would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance.


Answer

Here is Geography Division's response to your questions:

"According to the PCCF reference guide, the "0" value indicates a rural area for the UARAType. Rural postal codes are identifiable by the presence of a zero (0) in the second position of the FSA code. Urban postal codes are composed of FSAs with numerals 1 to 9 in the second position of the code.

UARA (http://geodepot.statcan.gc.ca/2006/180506051805140305/06180505162102/92-153-072305/2009001/tech-eng.htm)
Urban area codes are unique four-digit codes that are assigned sequentially upon the UA creation. These codes remain constant between censuses. If an urban area is retired due to amalgamation or failure to meet the population or density thresholds, then its code is retired.

Rural area codes are unique four-digit codes which are a concatenation of '99' plus the two-digit province/territory code. For example, records in rural areas in Manitoba are assigned '9946'. This field will be '0000' for postal codes linked to dissemination areas only (Rep_Point = 3).

UARAtype (http://geodepot.statcan.gc.ca/2006/180506051805140305/06180505162102/92-153-072305/2009001/tech-eng.htm)
For urban areas, the type code indicates the relationship of the urban area to the CMA/CA structure.

0 Rural area
1 Urban core
2 Urban fringe
4 Urban areas outside CMA/CAs
6 Secondary urban core

This field will be '9' for postal codes linked to dissemination areas only (Rep_Point = 3). There is no UARAtype available for postal codes linked at the dissemination area level. UARAtype is only available for postal codes linked at the more detailed dissemination block or block-face level.

Statistics Canada definition of Rural Area (http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/reference/dictionary/geo042.cfm)

Rural areas include all territory lying outside urban areas. Taken together, urban and rural areas cover all of Canada.

Rural population includes all population living in the rural fringes of census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations (CAs) , as well as population living in rural areas outside CMAs and CAs.

More information on Rural area (RA) is available at: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/reference/dictionary/geo042a.cfm"

I hope this answers your question sufficiently.  If you need further clarification, please let me know.

Socio-economic data for small geographic levels

Question

A bit of a broad question, but I’m more looking for advice on how to proceed rather than references to specific datasets (though the latter are always welcome!).
I have a faculty member engaged in research looking at expectant mothers’ distance to hospitals in Canada. He is working with CIHI to obtain hospital administration data by postal code. He would also like to develop a ‘vulnerability’ factor using socio-economic variables (income, crime, education). Because it has to match the CIHI data, geography is the most important variable. I have a vague understanding that census data is not available at the DA level unless it’s aggregated. Is this true? Are there other sources I should be looking at for DA level social-economic variables?
Thanks for your help. On the plus side, more questions I can’t answer means more complex data use is happening here!


Answer
The Census BST data, including average income and various education measures, are available through the DLI at the DA level. This data can then be matched to Postal Code data through the Postal Code conversion files. Crime data is more challenging. There is a Sociology Professor here at McGill who is developing an crime index measurement for all the census tracts in Canada. He has made use of the PCensus Crime Risk Data (CAP Index), which as I remember is also at the CT level. It might be that the mapping that Professor Burgos has been doing could be of interest to your researcher.

Energy Loss

Question

A student is trying to ascertain how energy loss is (or is not) accounted for during the supply and disposition process. I have appended the appropriate parts of his question to this message to further explain the difficulty. Basically, though, according to the student, it appears that loss is not accounted for, but it is a well-known fact that such loss does occur. Does StatsCan produce statistics that would account for this loss or is there a way that he can calculate the loss?

I’ve offered some non-StatsCan possibilities (e.g., industry associations) and tables Table 134-0004: Supply and disposition of refined petroleum products and Table 126-0001: Supply and disposition of crude oil and equivalent, both of which have losses and adjustments as a dimension, but it has not yet been determined whether these will be able to answer his question.


Answer

I have a response from the author division regarding energy loss.  Initiatially, they referred me to publication Table 57-003-X:

"In the Report on Energy Supply and Demand (catalogue number 57-003-X), tables 1-7 contain a row labelled "other adjustments" which, according to the Table Notes, includes losses and other adjustments."

However, I asked if it was possible to get separate figures for just the losses (not including any other adjustments).  They explained that it was possible for the student to calculate this as follows:


"In order to get the energy loss for a fuel, refer to table 128-0009. (for example - coal)

(Transformed to electricity by utilities = 1,152,315 terajoules) + (Transformed to electricity by industry = 115 terajoules) = 1,152,430 terajoules

then refer to table 8-1 in the RESD (57-003-X page 112) Electricity generated by coal = 108,091 megawatt hours X conversion factor 3.6 = 389,128 terajoules

The loss, in terajoules, to generate electricity from coal is 1,152,430 - 389,128 = 863,302 terajoules or 863,302 / 1,152,430 X 100 = 74.91 % loss

You can apply the same logic to the other fuel types to get the loss.

The energy conversion factors table is on page 119 of the Report on Energy Supply and Demand (RESD)."

Winery Data

Question

Could you please let me know whether this data would be accessible through DLI or are these all custom tabulations?

-provincial employment data (updated)which we already have (See summaryTable  below)

-$ sales by individual wineries or by size categories similar to above for employment

-litres of wine by individual wineries or by size categories similar to above for employment


Answer


Updated data for the table you cite in your question is available at the provincial level for NAICS 31213 (wineries) in Canadian Business Patterns.

As for sales and litres, I will check with the Divisions to see if they can provide custom tabulations for wineries by employement size categories.  Statistics Canada will not be able to provide the data for individual wineries.  Laine mentioned offlist that you may be able to obtain some of that data through a non-Statcan database (i.e. Financial Post Corporate Database).  She also suggested that you consult the Strategis web site:  http://www.ic.gc.ca/cis-sic/cis-sic.nsf/IDE/cis31213defe.html


Update:

I just received word from the division responsible for manufacturing statistics that data broken down by employment strata are not available at the moment.  However, they do plan to release it sometime this summer with the following size-category breakdowns: 0-49, 50-99, 100-199 and 200+.

So a custom tabulation is not possible right now but will be in a few months.

UCASS Questions

Question

Good morning all!

Alrighty here's a good one - one that I'm hoping someone can help me understand or maybe we can obtain some clarification from the Education folks :)

UCASS - is a population study - so essentially a Census - gathers information from all Universities and Colleges in Canada. So far so good. Now my researcher has asked the Division to obtain a mean and a standard error for a number of continuous or scale variables. (Aside: yes she's paying for each round of calculations and custom tabulations.)

The response they gave her yesterday was they cannot calculate a standard error for any values since it's a population study. Hmmm... ok if I think about this - yes it's a census so in essence this is the only population of this sort available and working on this notion maybe my researcher should have asked for a standard deviation. However... this information was not suggested and my researcher was also told that because this is a population study they are unable to provide her with any variation measures. This is where I get confused.

Can anyone help me understand this? Why is it NOT possible to obtain any variation measures from UCASS?


Answer

I did get some clarification from Education Division on this, and it seems to support what Susan explains below:

"We cannot provide any measures of variance (i.e. standard errors or coefficients of variation) because UCASS is a census of its targeted population. Measures of variance measure how much an estimate calculated from a sample may be different from an estimate calculated from the target population. However, since estimates coming from UCASS are calculated from the population, there is no need to figure out how much it differs from the population since it *is* the population."

I hope that helps.

Census Variable Question

Question

A grad student here at the University of Manitoba is doing a thesis on the economy in Northern Manitoba. As most data sources do not have much of a geographical breakdown, he has been looking at the Census (profile) data. This has been somewhat helpful, but he is running into problems when he starts looking at older censuses versus newer. For example, in 1986 the variable is "Transport, storage, commun. and other utilities", in 1991 it is "Communication and other utility industries" and in 1996, he starts getting a few variables, such as "Occupations unique to processing, Manuf and utilities" and "Labourers in processing, manuf. & utilities." This doesn't look very comparable, so he is thinking that he might rather compare some more encompassing variable. This is why he is now looking at "government services", but it is not clear if an occupation such as working for a utility would be considered part of the "government services"? That is my understanding anyway of what he is asking, but I have appended his email question below. Would there be someone in the Census division we might be able to refer him to, that might be more intimately aware of what is included in these variables, and what might or might not be comparable over this time period? Of course, any other advice you might have concerning this would be equally welcome.

"I am using the 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 Canada Censuses to get some information about the Northern Manitoba economy. A very important variable for this economy is participation in the utility sector (i.e. Hydro). I was able to obtain disaggregated data on this variable for the later two censuses. However, there is no variable measuring this in the earlier censuses. Because I understand it is going to be very complicated (if not impossible) to obtain data on this for earlier censuses, I just want to know whether this variable was included as part of participation in government services, non-government services or any other sector of the economy. "

Answer

I am not sure whether he is looking at breakdowns by industry or occupation. However, I did run it by Census Division and was told that he would need to look at the relevant classifications (SIC, NAICS, NOC, SOC) in conjunction with the concordance tables available at the following links:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/concepts/industry-industrie-eng.htm

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/concepts/occupation-profession-eng.htm

These detail the hierarchical formations and comparability of the different industrial and occupational categories within the different classification systems used in various censuses. For example, the 1986 variable you cite below combines sections G (Transportation and Storage Industries) and H (Communication and Other Utility Industries) of the SIC-80 classification. He could use the concordance tables to see how these sections relate to classifications used in later censuses.

Census Division also noted that more detailed levels of industry or occupation can be ordered as custom tabulations, although the cost may be prohibitive in this case.

GSS Data

Question

I have a faculty member who is looking for some data from the GSS.

1) Update from a recent General Social Survey: In 1995, General Social Survey : 73% of women and 68% of men agreed both spouses should contribute to household income.  Need more up to date information..

2) Update from a recent General Social Survey: In 1995, 59 % of men and 67% of women said a preschool child was likely to suffer if both parent were employed. Again, need more current information.

I’ve tried looking but does a more recent General Social Survey have any responses along these lines. If not exactly, close?


Answer

Those questions for Cycle 10 were both dropped for Cycle 15 (see Appendix L of the Cycle 15 User Guide for a comparison between Cycle 10 and 15 questions).

I looked in the User's Guides/Questionnaires for both Cycles 15 and 20 and didn't see anything equivalent.  The closest I found were:

DRW_Q113 (Cycle 20) - "Some parents stay at home with their children while others return to work.  Why didn't you return to work?  Was it because...you wanted to raise your child yourself?"

NLW_Q115 (Cycle 20) - "There can be many reasons why people do not take leave after the birth/adoption of a child.  Why did you not take any time off?  Was it because...you did not want to compromise your career?"

VA_Q070 (Cycle 15) - "In order for YOU to be happy in life, is it very important, important, not very important or not at all important to be able to take a paying job either outside or inside the home?"

Sorry I couldn't be of any further assistance.

Licensing question: sharing report based upon DLI data with company

Question

Some student assignments in our Business School involve developing marketing (or other) plans for actual companies and organizations, in order to give students real-world experience. These reports are often shared with the organization at the end of the project. Instructors have asked whether students can use DLI resources in their assignments, if the results are going to be shared with a company. This is a different scenario than the one in the list of licensing examples ("Students doing an independent study for a professor, a business proposal, which might then be used to start a Centre within the university") which was approved, since the end user will be a profit-making enterprise. [Note: the data is not being shared, but rather the conclusions based upon the data obtained through the DLI.]

I suspect that the answer is no but thought I should check.



Answer

Since these projects are assignments that are required for a course, they can use the DLI data to prepare their assignment and share the plan or analysis with companies and organizations. They cannot share the data but the analysis and/or plans can be shared with anyone.

Hope this helps.

Citing Department of Justice Data

Question



I have a student trying to cite one of the Beyond 20/20 tables from the Department of Justice data that we get through the DLI (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/justice-eng.htm).  I can’t find anything in Gaëtan’s guide that addresses aggregate statistics that we get directly from the DLI.  Might be something to add…

I am wondering if something like the following would do it:

Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics. 2007. All Police Services - (1977 - 2007), Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (table).  Statistics Canada (distributor). Beyond 20/20.

I (and the student) would appreciate feedback.


Answer

I will recommend that some examples are added to cover custom tables like these ones.  In the meantime, I will let you know my interpretation of the guidelines...

I noticed that every single author example uses either "Statistics Canada" or an individual's name.  None use names of individual divisions (such as the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics).  I also think it is important to note that you obtained it from the DLI web module. As for the date, the table title reflects it. So I came up with the following citation, based on the "Tables, graphs, figures or charts from the Statistics Canada website in HTML or PDF" format, and modified the end to reflect that it is actually a Beyond 20/20 table.

Statistics Canada. No date. Crime Statistics, All Police Services, 1977 - 2007 (table). Data Liberation Initiative.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/justice-eng.htm (accessed Xxxx xx, xxxx). Beyond 20/20.



Here are the examples I based it on:

Tables, graphs, figures or charts from the Statistics Canada website in HTML or PDF

Statistics Canada. No date. Gross Domestic Product, Income-based (table). Canadian Statistics. Last updated May 31, 2005.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pgdb/8101171-eng.htm (accessed June 13, 2008).

Statistics Canada. No date. Average Days Lost for Personal Reasons per Full-Time Employee per Year by Age Group, Sex, Occupation, Canada, Provinces, Annual Average (table). Labour Force Historical Review 2003 (database). Using CREPUQ (distributor). Last updated January 28, 2005.
http://ivt.crepuq.qc.ca/tableauxStat_A.html (accessed June 13, 2008). Beyond 20/20.

I hope this helps.