Question
Are the General Social Survey (GSS) 27 and the Ethnic Diversity Survey related?
I checked the Users’ guide for GSS 27, and did not find an instances of “Ethnic diversity”. However, I just checked the Questionnaire http://www62.statcan.ca/dli-idd/metadata/gss-esg/gss-2013-c27/GSS27SI_questionnaire.pdf.
On page 132 / 352, the second last line indicates “Similar question was asked Ethnic Diversity Survey 2002 (AT_Q030)”.
On page 134 / 352, under the first variable and values, it states “Based on Ethnic Diversity Survey 2002 Statistics Canada (AT_Q020).”
That is all that comes up for “Ethnic diversity”, but there are 28 instances of “ethnic” so there is a fair amount of content on this topic in GSS 27.
I searched the Statistics Canada website a bit to see if I could find anything else linking these two surveys, but came up empty handed. I am wondering if you can confirm that these two questions are the extent of the relationship between these two surveys, or am I missing anything else?
Answer
I confirmed with the subject matter division regarding your question. Here is the response from the survey manager.
“The 2013 General Social Survey (GSS) on Social Identity (SI) (cycle 27) did indeed borrow some content questions from the 2003 Ethnic Diversity Survey, but there is no relation between surveys. It is true that the “ethnicity” dimension is present in both surveys, but the 2013 GSS on SI has a larger scope which includes Social networks, civic participation and engagement, knowledge of Canadian history, appreciation of national symbols, shared values, confidence in institutions and trust in people. Other differences include, the instrument design, sampling, methodology and reference period.“
