Wednesday, March 25, 2015

CANSIM Table 381-5000 (GDP at CMA)

Question

A student has found CANSIM Table 381-5000, which according to footnote 1 is a table “based on the research paper "Metropolitan Gross Domestic Product: Experimental Estimates, 2001 to 2009" by Mark Brown and Luke Rispoli,” so now of course would like past and more current years worth of data.

The Daily article (dated Nov. 10, 2014) on this report <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/141110/dq141110a-eng.htm> gives some explanation, including:

Traditionally, Statistics Canada has produced estimates of GDP nationally and by province, but not at the metropolitan level. With growing interest in measuring the dynamics of metropolitan economies, new experimental estimates of GDP by CMAs have been developed.

These include estimates of GDP over the 2001 to 2009 period for 33 CMAs and the non-metropolitan regions of the nine provinces with a CMA.

Are these the only years for which GDP at CMA is currently available? Will data for future (or past) years will be forthcoming at some point?

Answer


The subject matter has confirmed that:

The study mentioned in your correspondence was the result of a pilot project undertaken by our colleagues in the Economic Analysis Division. I do not think there is any data in this series that goes back before 2001 or is more current than 2009.

There is no set date for new data from the experimental project:

“We hope in the coming year to develop a set of more recent estimates, but no delivery date has been set for these.”