2001 Census - Income Information at DA Level

Question

I'm wondering if 2001 census income data at the DA level is available in the same detail as the data is for other geographic levels, e.g. CMAs. When I look through the Electronic Profiles
(http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/profiles/Profiles.cfm)
using the link "Income of Individuals... ," I see that for CMAs I can use the table Cat. No. 95F0492XCB2001004 with 285 variables, which includes everything I'm looking for (esp. variables 5-26 and 197-211). However, for the DA level, there are only 52 variables available, and these don't include the ones I'm looking for.

Does this mean that what I'm looking for doesn't exist at this level for me to download from the DLI server? Or that it's just not available for 'free' (& if so, what would the cost be)?

Answer

For individuals, your variables 5-7 and 24-26 from the CMA/CA profile, are available at the DA level from Basic cross tabulation Table 431: Presence of Income (6) , Age Groups (5A) and Sex (3) for Total Population 15 Years and Over - 95f0431xcb2001001

And for households, your variables 197 and 209-211 are available at the DA level from Table 437: 2000 Household Income (4) and Household Size (3) for Private Households - 95F0437XCB01001

Rule of thumb: the finer the geography, the fewer variables available; the broader the geography, the more variables available. This is because of confidentiality. With the tables you have identified, for instance, the finer the geography, the more likely one would be able to identify a particular individual's income. Statistics Canada does not want this to happen.

If someone wants data for a finer geography and this data is not available through DLI, they would have to custom order the data. And, Statistics Canada would only give (well, actually sell) them the data if there was no problem with confidentiality.

To purchase data from STC contact infostats
http://www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/statcomment.pl