Friday, December 20, 2013

Income Data

Question
I have a graduate student who has her own survey data with postal codes, and would like to match income data to it. Since we've been advised that the 2011 NHS income data is not to be relied on, is there another source from which we can get household income data at the FSA level?

Answer

I can provide data by FSA for Census Families, lone-parent families and Persons not in a Census family--household usually refers to an economic family. I copied the definition of an economic family from the internet and a separate definition of census family from the user's guide enclosed above.

I'm going to suggest two different tables:

Family, table 1, Summary, which provides median income data Family, table 4, distribution of Total Income by all Family types.

The most current year is 2011 and the source of this data is from the T1 Tax File (TIFF), Administrative Data. I can only provide a cost quote once you choose one or more of the tables attached. For example, one table for all FSAs in Canada will cost $145.36 + taxes. If you choose more than two tables and more years then the cost will rise accordingly. I have data going back from 1990 to 2011--not all tables are available historically. If cost is an issue,you can download data from CANSIM for free from 2000 to 2011 by CMA and CA.

CANSIM numbers that may be helpful:
1110009 FAM 1 Family characteristics, summary
1110010 FAM 2 Family characteristics, by family type and age group
1110011 FAM 3 Families by type, composition, and parent characteristics
1110012 FAM 4 Family characteristics, by age of older adult, family type and family income
1110013 FAM 5 Families by family type, composition and total income
1110014 FAM 6 Sources of income by family type
1110015 FAM 17-18 Low Income Measures, by family type and family type composition
1110016 Fam 7 - 8 Economic dependency profile, by family type and source of income
1110017 Fam 9 - 10 Family characteristics, labour income profile, by family type
1110018 Fam 11 Labour characteristics, by sex and age group
1110019 Fam 12 Persons receiving Employment Insurance, by sex and age group
1110020 Fam 13 Single-earner and dual-earner families, by number of children
1110021 Fam 14 Husband-wife families, by wife's contrubution to husband-wife employment income
1110022 Fam 15 Family characteristics, families with children, by age of children


Definition of Economic Family:

Family structure refers to the combination of relatives that comprise a family. Classification on this variable considers the presence or absence of: legally married spouses or common law partners; children; and, in the case of economic families, other relatives.

Economic family refers to a group of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling and are related to each other by blood, marriage, common-law or adoption. A couple may be of opposite or same sex. Foster children are included.

By definition, all persons who are members of a census family are also members of an economic family. Examples of the broader concept of economic family include the following: two co-resident census families who are related to one another are considered one economic family; co-resident siblings who are not members of a census family are considered as one economic family; and, nieces or nephews living with aunts or uncles are considered one economic family.

Definition of Census Family:

Census family classifies people in the following manner: 1) couples(married or common-law) living in the same dwelling, with or without children; and 2) lone-parents (male or female) with one or more children. The residual population is called "persons not in census families" and is made up of persons living alone and of persons living in a household but who are not part of a couple family or lone-parent family.