Thursday, February 23, 2017

Percentage of Aboriginal social workers in Canada

Question
I have a researcher wanting to access data related to the percentage of Social Workers in Canada who are Aboriginal (according to this report http://casw-acts.ca/en/critical-demand-social-work-canada-volume-1-final-report-2000 it is 4.6% from the 1996 census). The researcher wants to access the data to confirm this number, as well as to cite the original source in her journal article. I can’t find anything that gives me both occupation to the NOC level combined with Aboriginal identity (I’m assuming that that combination could only come from a custom tab or working with the master file?).

Answer
I received a reply from Census group indicating that the 1996 Census does not provide the information you are seeking. I have been instructed to follow up with another group. I will let you know their response to your questions.

I received a response from the group responsible for the Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS):

"The 1991 Aboriginal Peoples Survey could be a source, as it has both NOC(SOC91: http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3VD.pl?Function=getVD&TVD=143375 ) and aboriginal identity.

Having said that, I was able to find the variables in the 1996 Census in e-DICT:

Occupation variable (depending on the table):
Soc91 for 1991 Standard Occupational Classification
Nochrd for 1990 National Occupational Classification

Aboriginal Identity variable: AsRr
Both sources are possible, so it would really depend what is listed in the article as the source information for the data they wish to re-create. If the client is unsure of the source, they may need to contact the author(s) of the report, as it is not a Statistics Canada publication."