1953 Canadian Weight Height Survey

Question

We have had a request from a researcher here for the data from the 1953 Canadian Weight Height Survey. This survey was conducted by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics (Statistics Canada's predecessor) and one of the articles we found stated that the tables and the report were issued by the Department of National Health and Welfare. The records were apparently transcribed to punch cards. I know this is a real long shot, but by any chance does anyone know if the data is available in a digital medium?

Answer

I would be surprised if this is available on digital media as this was well before the DBS had much in the way of computing power. The first major survey processed on the computer was the 1958 Survey of Farm Income and Expenditures. Those tapes have not been preserved although we did migrate them a few times, but they rusted out and were abandoned.

Additional Information

Our health contacts have confirmed that, as was suspected, these data unfortunately no longer exist here at Statistics Canada. They thought that the following articles about the 1953 survey could be of interest to your researcher:

http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v10/n7/full/oby200290a.html
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_11/sr11_008.pdf

As I mentioned off list earlier this week, I consulted the UofT Data Library website and the 1953 survey doesn't appear to be listed there either.

I hope that this confirmation is helpful.