Religion Data

Question:

Hello,

I’m working with a researcher who’s looking for data on gender, employment, and religion, to explore the relationship between Muslim religious identity and employment among women (at the national level). After looking around a bit it seems to me that accessing the GSS (work & home) via the RDC might be the only way to get down to the level of specific religious affiliation, but I thought I would check in here first. Would there be an option for a custom tab that would include these variables? Am I missing another source that might work for her?

Answer:

You have the National Household Survey that has religious affiliation data.
Religion (19), Age Groups (10), Sex (3), Selected Demographic, Cultural, Labour Force and Educational Characteristics (268) for the Population in Private Households of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2011 National Household Survey

There’s the 2001 census as well that has variable on religion, gender and employment.  Interestingly enough, the question on religion was not included in the 2016 Census since it is only asked every 10 years. The question will be considered for inclusion in the 2021 Census (source – Census Dictionary).

Muslim Immigrants & Country of Origin

Question

Although religion wasn’t asked in the 2006 Census, is there a way to obtain counts for the number of Muslim immigrants at the National level x country of origin?

Answer

There are a few possible sources in locating the answer to this question. You could first consult a report issues by Environics Research Group (http://www.environicsinstitute.org/PDF-MuslimsandMulticulturalisminCanada-LiftingtheVeil.pdf). Alternatively, you could  do a xtab of coutry of origin and religion in the 2001 Census PUMF, or the version in the RDC, which should have more detailed country of origin values coded. The most detailed country of origin data come from Citizenship and Immigration, but they don't ask religion.

Wilcox, SK - Religion in 1991 and 2001

Question

A researcher is studying the village of Wilcox, SK. He thinks that there may be an error with the number reported in the 1991 Census pertaining to the religion question.

In 1991, there were 75 Catholics and 165 Protestants (and no other groups).
In 2001, there 215 Catholics and 75 Protestants.
(Looking down the road to 2011, I am expecting there won't be a number to compare.)

Because Wilcox is home of Notre Dame College, it would be easy to think that he is correct in his hypothesis. Is it possible that the numbers in 1991 were flipped?

Answer

Subject matter experts have looked into the researcher's question about the religion data for Wilcox, SK for 1991 and have provided the following response:

"We have compared the religion data for Wilcox, SK for 1981, 1991 and 2001 and found no indication of any errors made during processing. No change was made to the data from the load stage to the unimpute stage to the final disseminated Religion data.

One possible explanation for the difference between the 1991 and 2001 data is the fact that the 2001 Census was conducted in mid-May, three weeks earlier than it was done in 1991. It is possible that by early June, school residences (i.e. Notre Dame College) would essentially be empty but in mid-May there would still be students in the school residence as well as in private dwellings. So many years after collection, there is no way we can confirm this for sure."

If you or the researcher have any other questions, please not hesitate to contact us.

Religion of Aboriginal Peoples

Question

A professor teaching a class on Religion in Canada is searching for information about religion of Aboriginal people in Canada.

We have identified the Detailed Tables of Projections of Population with Aboriginal Ancestry, Canada, Provinces/Regions and Territories, 1991-2016 from the Statistics Canada page (91C0026). It appears that this is a custom tabulation that has to be purchased. I'm wondering how we might acquire it? Is it something that the DLI could obtain access for us?

He is particularly interested in current information but is also interested in historical data as well. Any suggestions about
information on religion on Canada in general or as it pertains to aboriginal people is needed. I do know that the Census collections
religion data in the census years ending in 1.

Answer

A similar product was distributed on cd-rom under DLI back in about September of 2005:
Projections of the Aboriginal populations, Canada, provinces and territories (Canada. Statistics Canada; 91-547-xcb)
- but population projections is all it contains.

I couldn't find any aboriginal identity by religion tables in the 2001 census products, nor in 1991. My best suggestions are:
2001
- Census individual public use microdata file - from this you can produce eg a table of aboriginal identity and religion
- the Aboriginal peoples survey microdata file (adults off reserve) doesn't seem to have a religion question

1991
- Census individual public use microdata file - same as above, although the coding of Aboriginal identity is quite different from 2001
- 1991 Aboriginal peoples survey public use microdata file does have aboriginal identity and religion

You may also want to check the RCAP report or the CD-ROM, For Seven Generations: Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

Historical stats on religion and ethnicity

Question

A religion grad student at Concordia is looking for the following: population of Jews and Arabs in Canada as a whole and in the Montreal CMA (or, if not available, for the province of Quebec) for the 1901-2001 period. She would also like to have the number of Muslims for the same geographic areas (Canada and Montreal CMA or province of Quebec) and the same period.

I suppose it would be possible to gather data from the individual census but the student does not have much time to do that and would much prefer ready-made historical statistic. Unfortunately, I suspect those do not exist for the categories mentioned above. The only historical data I have been able to find so far is the Jewish population (CANSIM Table 075-0016).

Answer

For some of the years there was no data for certain categories and there was no data for Montreal. StatsCan does not have any publication for prior to 1971. I will be contacting subject-matter for any additional information, but I know from past experience they also do not have historical data at their fingertips unless they have done an historical study.

Religiosity in Canada

Question

A student here at Concordia is doing research on the religious impact on politics in Canada. They are interested in finding some concrete numbers on how religious people are (the depth of their religiosity measured in some way, i.e. self-reporting, or some other measure of religiosity) in relation to the stated number of people of a certain religion from the census. For example, of the 12 million people who state to be Roman Catholic, how many of those 12 million are actually religious in their day to day lives?

Answers

1. One possibility is to use the Canadian election surveys, which include measures of religiosity:
http://www.ces-eec.umontreal.ca/ces.html

Another option is Reginald Bibby's surveys of Canadian religiosity, at ARDA:
http://www.thearda.com/

2. There is an article in Canadian Social Trends (spring 2003) called "Pockets of belief: religious attendance patterns in Canada". This lead us to the General Social Survey. In each year of the survey they ask "Other than special occassions (such as weddings, funerals, or baptisms) how often did you attend religious services or meetings in the past 12 months?"

Although this may not completely answer your question, it's probably the closest Statscan comes to asking how religious are you.

3. Another source may be the International Social Survey Programme. They did two religion surveys, 1991 and 1998. You can find the documentation at:
http://www.library.carleton.ca/ssdata/surveys/issp.html
and scroll down to both years.