Thursday, November 26, 2015

2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey

Question

A few years ago DLI received Additional data tables from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey that support each of the five sections of the study “The Education and Employment Experience of First Nations People Living Off-Reserve, Inuit, Metis: Selected Findings from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey”.

Is there any chance that we can get similar data tables for the following 2012 APS studies?

· School Mobility and Educational Outcomes of Off-Reserve First Nations Students
· Labour Force Characteristics of the Metis: Findings from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey
· Inuit Health: Selected Findings from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey

Answer

I contacted the subject matter division responsible for these and they provided the following response:
“These were available as a supplement/background to that report. Regarding work on the other three reports, no other such ‘supplemental’ tables were produced. Although they may be useful, they would not be available unless they were part of a custom request.”
Subject matter is investigating further and should they become available to the DLI free of charge in future we will be sure to include them in our collection.

Institutional identifiers and the National Graduate Survey

Question

Does the NGS data (e.g., master file) have institutional identifiers for Canadian post-secondary institutions from which respondents received their last degree? The questionnaire seems to indicate no. If not, are there any other StatCan surveys with post-secondary institutional identifiers?

Answer

Please see Cansim Table 477-00621, 2, 5 - National graduates survey, post-secondary graduates by province of study and level of study.

Also, the Post-secondary Student Information System (PSIS) is a national survey that enables Statistics Canada to provide detailed information on enrollments and graduates of Canadian public post-secondary institutions in order to meet policy and planning needs in the field of post-secondary education.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

PUMF and Share files for census data


Question

Are the PUMF census files random rounded and if so, can non-rounded census data be accessed? Also, are Share files available for the census (similar to the CCHS) and how can these be accessed?

Answer

The PUMF is a microdata file, it is an anonymized sample of our dissemination database i.e. a collection of respondent records. It is a collection of non-aggregated, unrounded data.
The census program creates two different files and more information can be found about the files by following the links:

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Average market value of mobile homes

Answer

I have a student looking for average market value of mobile homes in a specific city. I have found lots of statistics, which have helped her for her other statistical needs, but nothing specifically for mobile homes. The best I could do was to advise her to go to http://www.realtor.ca, search for listings, and then average the price of the resulting listings. (You can bring up just mobile homes by clicking on the blue More Options button and selecting Mobile Home.)

If anyone knows of anything that I've missed, please let me know!

Question

I had a question about historical housing prices and had to go through the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) stats service:http://creastats.crea.ca/natl/index.htm.

Three quick notes about dealing with CREA:
1. They took a month to reply to my initial email but acted quite quickly once they got back to me.
2. They said the researcher would have to contact them directly to get access to the stats.
3. They said there's often a cost recovery charge but, as a first-time academic user, they wouldn't charge my researcher for his first request.

Monday, November 16, 2015

NOC and CIP

Question

I've got a researcher with the following question:
Do you know if a table exists that maps Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes to National Occupational Classification (NOC) codes?
I somewhat suspect that there isn't but want to double-check.

I presume that the closest we're going to find is data on which CIP grads are working in which NOC fields. To this end, the most detailed table I've found is 99-012-X2011056 from the NHS. Are there any sources we might consider for this data?

Answer

Here is a response from our Education subject matter:

“There is no standard mapping/concordance between CIP and NOC. Standards Division has indicated in the past that they would not produce such a concordance, stating “as these are different variables, the most appropriate way to look at the relationship between them is to produce a cross tabulation.”

General Corporate Tax Rates by Province - time series

Question
I'm having trouble finding general provincial corporate tax rates. I have found some but they don't go back very far and the researcher wants them back decades, as far back as possible. Any suggestions? Do you think they would have to be looked up individually?

Answer

This Agriculture Canada publication has provincial corporate tax rates going back to 1960:
Corporate Income Tax Rate Database : Canada and the Provinces, 1960-2005Research and Analysis Directorate Strategic Research Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
http://www5.agr.gc.ca/resources/prod/doc/pol/pub/itdat60-05/pdf/tax_e.pdf

Also, a law library will have tax guides going back in time that will include the information you seek. These publications are published by various publishers such as CCH, De Boo, Carswell, and Lexis.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Custom tab requests - online form vs email?

Question

Does anyone know if the procedure for requesting custom requests has recently changed slightly to now only be possible through an online form? I am accustomed to sending requests to: infostats@statcan.gc.ca but this address rejected my request. Not certain if just the email server was donw?

I then found this page which has only an online form:  http://www.statcan.gc.ca/reference/refcentre-centreref/index-eng.htm.

I was hoping an email address w/out the necessity of using an online form was still possible as it is then possible to copy into the initial correspondence the researchers requesting data.

Answer

In future it would be easier to email dli-idd@statcan.gc.ca with what custom tabulation you would be interested in and we can put you in touch with the relevant subject matter division whom would take your request from there. Please be sure to provide as much information as possible in your request and if possible reference a similar existing STATCAN product if your are aware of one.

Questions about price definitions for joining two CANSIM tables

Question

A researcher would like to join two CANSIM tables for a continuous provincial/territorial GDP time series

To this end, we are wondering if the prices for the two tables below can be harmonized as current market prices? Please see below for the specifics of the two tables.

Also, was GDP being tracked province by province (& territories) before 1961? If so, where would this have been published? I note that cat. no. 13-213 only goes back to 1961 – I couldn’t readily find anything before this. Cat. no. 13-001 (1953 - ) doesn’t seem to break the provinces down.
CANSIM table 384-0015
1961-1980

What prices …
Are these variables all available in current market prices?  We note that these variables are at market prices, but there is no metadata on whether these are current prices.  Are they?

CANSIM table 384-0038
1981-2013

What prices …
Are these variables, all in market prices?  We note that we can select Prices=Current prices.  There is no metadata on whether these are market prices.  Are they?


Variables of interest


Variables of interest


Answer

Both GDP estimations in CANSIM table 384-0015 and 384-0038 are at market prices (i.e. “Provincial gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices” and “Gross domestic product at market prices”, respectively). Here is a definition of market prices:
Amounts of money that willing buyers pay to acquire something from willing sellers; the exchanges are made between independent parties and on the basis of commercial considerations only, sometimes called “at arm's length.”
Current prices refer to the prices at a specific time period (i.e. year). Here is the definition :
Transactions, assets or liabilities are said to be expressed in current prices if the prices used in their valuation are the prices prevailing in the period of observation; that is both the quantity and the price components of the value series relate to the current period. Period-to-period changes in current price values may reflect changes in both quantities and prices.
The first year where there is data on GDP by province is 1961. The data in CANSIM table 384-0015 are based on SNA 1968 concepts; SNA 1997 has since been adopted and CANSIM table 384-0038 is currently based on SNA 2008 concepts. In addition to the change in concepts, a constant dollar estimate was not produced in 384-0015 and therefore it would not be possible to harmonize the prices.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Soda (soft drink) consumption

Question

I am seeing a reference (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/2008004/article/10716/6500244-eng.htm) to the CCHS capturing soda (soft drink) consumption but even in the Masterfile codebooks am not able to find the variable.

Does anyone know if soft drink consumption is captured in the CCHS or another STC survey (either PUMF or Master)?

Is “soft drink” consumption at a national level measured through either a health or expenditure survey?


Answer

Take a look at CANSIM Table 203-0028<http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26?lang=eng&retrLang=eng&id=2030028&pattern=&stByVal=1&p1=1&p2=49&tabMode=dataTable&csid=> - Survey of household spending (SHS), detailed food expenditures, Canada, regions and provinces - annual (dollars); this table lists data for 'Carbonated soft drinks' under 'Non-alcoholic beverages and other food products' at the National level.

Also the CCHS 2004 Nutrition(Focus content 2.2) survey did capture data on soft drink consumption (24 hour recall). This should be available through the RDCs, or as a custom tab.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Census Divisions and Census Subdivisions

Question

In the illustrated census glossary (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/92-195-x/2011001/geo/csd-sdr/csd-sdr-eng.htm), Census Divisions and Census Subdivisions are listed as valid for census years going back to 1961, but I have noticed that the terms Census Division and Subdivison are used at least as far back as 1931, if not earlier.

Any clue as to why this disparity?

Answer

These years align with those of the Standard Geographical Classification (SGC), Statistics Canada's official classification for geographical areas in Canada and Statistics Canada's official classification of geographic areas which provides unique codes for three hierarchically-related geographic areas: provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions.
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/ref/dict/geo027-eng.cfm
http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/ref/dict/geo044-eng.cfm

Preface
Established in the early 1960s, the Standard Geographical Classification was released as a working manual for 1964, 1966 and 1972. In 1974, the manual became an official publication of Statistics Canada and it was subsequently issued for 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001. This 2006 version is the eighth edition.

The classification consists of two volumes, each available separately. Volume I describes the classification and related standard areas and provides an alphabetical index of place names. It also explains the changes between the 2006 edition of the SGC and the 2001 edition that impact directly upon the SGC, such as changes in name, type, or code, and indicates how the new and old codes relate to one another. Volume II contains reference maps showing the locations and boundaries of the standard geographical areas in the classification. The maps are available for a fee in a paper version or can be downloaded for free in PDF format from our website.

Hysterectomies by ethnicity

Question

An student is looking for any recent aggregated data on hysterectomies in Quebec broken down by ethnicity or visible minority status. We have been able to find many sources for Quebec stats, but never broken down by ethnicity. Using Nesstar we were able to find variables in the Canadian Community Health Survey 2011-12 for hysterectomies (Variable MAM_038) and visible minority status, but provincial data seems only to be available for Alberta, Ontario and Newfoundland. All other provinces show 0 for variable MAM_038, so I checked the documentation and Appendix B confirmed that Quebec (and most other provinces) had opted out of the Mammography (MAM) questions (and yes, the hysterectomy variable is that category).

I also checked the Institut de la Statistique du Québec and Ministère de la Santé et des Services Sociaux but could not get a breakdown by ethnicity.

Can someone think of another data source?

Answer

The single year 2012 CCHS cycle should have that variable as mammography was a theme for just that year. L'Institut de la Statistique du Québec being one of our partners should have the single year 2012 for CCHS. When there is a theme, data is collected from all provinces.

Therefore, any provinces, should have data on that theme for that year regardless if they had opted out the prior year. Whoever is looking to get the data where a province had opted out in a prior year (in this example 2011 for Quebec), has to look on the single year release. In this case the person would have to look at the single year data file for CCHS 2012.

If someone tries to run it on the 2011-12 PUMF then they will only get results for the provinces that had opted in for 2011 even though mammography was a theme for 2012. The results for Canada are already low that trying to cross it by provinces and Ethnicity could prove to be a challenge in some areas.


Dataset: Canadian Community Health Survey, 2012: Annual Component

2012: Annual Component

Variable MAM_038: Had a hysterectomy