2011 National Household Survey Income

Question

A researcher is looking for the income for 2011 for the City of Waterloo, individuals 65 and over.

All I’m finding in NHS is the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge CMA data.

Is the data at the CSD level available or do we need to go through the custom tab?

Answer

Please find the link below:

Selected Demographic, Cultural, Educational, Labour Force and Income Characteristics (730), First Official Language Spoken (4), Age Groups (8D) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Divisions and Census Subdivisions, 2011 National Household Survey

You can select the age group 65 years and over and scroll down for the Income variables. Then click on the geographic index to view other CSDs.

GSS Data

Question

I have a faculty member who is looking for some data from the GSS.

1) Update from a recent General Social Survey: In 1995, General Social Survey : 73% of women and 68% of men agreed both spouses should contribute to household income.  Need more up to date information..

2) Update from a recent General Social Survey: In 1995, 59 % of men and 67% of women said a preschool child was likely to suffer if both parent were employed. Again, need more current information.

I’ve tried looking but does a more recent General Social Survey have any responses along these lines. If not exactly, close?


Answer

Those questions for Cycle 10 were both dropped for Cycle 15 (see Appendix L of the Cycle 15 User Guide for a comparison between Cycle 10 and 15 questions).

I looked in the User's Guides/Questionnaires for both Cycles 15 and 20 and didn't see anything equivalent.  The closest I found were:

DRW_Q113 (Cycle 20) - "Some parents stay at home with their children while others return to work.  Why didn't you return to work?  Was it because...you wanted to raise your child yourself?"

NLW_Q115 (Cycle 20) - "There can be many reasons why people do not take leave after the birth/adoption of a child.  Why did you not take any time off?  Was it because...you did not want to compromise your career?"

VA_Q070 (Cycle 15) - "In order for YOU to be happy in life, is it very important, important, not very important or not at all important to be able to take a paying job either outside or inside the home?"

Sorry I couldn't be of any further assistance.

Dual Income Earners in a Household

Question

I have cool question from an undergraduate student this afternoon - can anyone direct me to a source that could tell me the number of dual income earners in a household before and after 1960.  The student has looked at Census - and pulling out the # of earners in a household is not as straightforward...  I'm stuck on the 1960 bit.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Answer

I looked in the 1951 Census print publications and found one table that may be relevant.  It can be found in Volume III: Housing and Families:

Table 128.  Families by size, types, numbers of members in the labour force...1951

This table provides the number of families with either 0, 1, or 2+ members in the labour force for Canada, provinces, counties and census divisions.

There are 2 similar tables for other levels of geography:

Table 129 = incorporated cities, towns, and villages of 1,000 population and over
Table 130 = Census Metropolitan Areas

Real, personal disposable income

Question

I have a question about CANSIM Table 384-0013. We have been looking for REAL personal disposable income (i.e. personal disposable income adjusted for inflation). It appears that this table has these numbers, but the footnote makes no mention of any inflationary adjustments. Could we have an assurance that these are, indeed, adjusted for inflation and if not, what multipliers should be used to do that here?

Answer

Sorry, the personal disposable income on this table is in current dollars, not real terms. We do not produce income-based estimates in real terms.

For more detail please refer to our website www.statcan.ca/nea and select "Income and expenditure accounts" from the left-hand bar. On the next page choose the link "about the income and expenditure accounts" (or go directly to
www.statcan.ca/english/nea-cen/about/iea.htm).

1971 Census Family Income at CD

Question

A student here is looking for something which I thought would be realtively easy to find, "1971 Census of Canada Data at the Census Division level for Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - Family Income". We have been able to find information on income for "Household Head", but not for "Family Income" and not at this level of geography. Am I missing something, or is that just what they collected back then?

Answers

a) For 1971, there were more tabes released based on Household Head. There was a basic summary table produced called income by economic families at EA level. You would have to aggregate to the CD level and because of the data was produced for EA, the only information is the aggregate and average income.

b) Census of Canada, 1971 volume 2 part 2: families (Bulletin 2.2-12)(STC cat no. 93-724) contains Table 85: "Families by 1970 income groups for census divisions, 1971" (pages 86-5 to 86-6) - which is a table of numbers of census families by 11 categories of income, plus average income by census division.

Amount collected by restaurant workers in tips

Question

How much is collected in income tax for tips by restaurant / bar workers and how much do they actually collect from the folks leaving the tips?

Answer

That is a very tough question! The last time Statistics Canada looked at "The Underground Economy" was in 1994...

I did find a handy paragraph that could perhaps be of help:

3.5 Tips

Tips are calculated in the national accounts as a fixed percentage of gross business receipts, varying by industry and type of service provided (3% for accommodation, 10% for meals in restaurants, alcoholic beverages and hairdressing and 15% for taxi). The upper limit of tips missing from GDP due to underground transactions can be calculated directly by applying the same percentages to the estimates skimming of receipts...

Source: The Size of the Underground Economy in Canada, catalogue 13-602E, No. 2, Statistics Canada, p.30. (Gaëtan - don't look at my citation format!)

I would take some time to review the entire document - it has many components which are very helpful.

Although this will not meet your exact needs, it may hold some information to help guide you in your search.

Personal income per capita (and more!)

Question

A patron is looking for any/all of the following:

Market income per capita
Disposable income per capita
Personal income per capita

Most importantly, he is looking for these variables from 1957-present (annually up to 5 year intervals) and he wants to compare provinces to the national average.

I think I can find some of these if I dig hard enough, but I was hoping someone might have a source at the tips of their
fingers. It could be a data or statistical source.

Answer

CANSIM table 380-0050 has personal income, personal disposable income, and income per capita, by province, annually from 1926-1990.

384-0012 has personal income and personal disposable income from 1980-2004, by province.

Any series that are totals can be divided by the estimated population for the same year, to produce per capita figures, no? The economists on this list will, I am sure, correct me if I am wrong here.

202-0201 has market income, from 1980-2003, for different economic family types, by province.

Since Stats Can defines market income as: Average market income is the sum of earnings (from employment and self-employment), investment income, (private) retirement income, and items under "Other income". It is equivalent to total income minus government transfers. see:
http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/famil22a.htm

You should therefore be able to derive market income from 1961-1991 from appropriate series in CANSIM table 384-0034, and earlier numbers from the print volumes of the National income and expenditure accounts (13-531).

Income Status in 1981

Question

I am looking at the definition of income status in the 2001 census dicitonary:
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Reference/dict/fam020.htm

and I am puzzled.

The detailed definition states: "Refers to the position of an economic family or an unattached individual 15 years of age and over in relation to Statistics Canada's low income cut-offs (LICOs)," followed by "Censuses: 2001 (1/5 sample), 1996 (1/5 sample), 1991 (1/5 sample), 1986 (1/5 sample), 1981 (1/5 sample), 1971 (1/3 sample)".

The latter implies that this variable or concept is covered in every census since 1971; however, examination of the PUMF codebooks reveals coverage only since 1991. A researcher here is looking at the relationship between immigrant status, age and
position above or below the LICO line. The above definition implies that he should be able to use the 1981 census, but the concept does not appear to be present there. Can someone explain this to me? Was it in the master file, but left out of the PUMF?

Answer

Low income cut-off variable is not included in the 1981 PUMF, however it does exists on the source database. It is important to remember that the content of the PUMF is a selection of variables only.

LICO is a derived variable based on a number of non-census resources including FAMEX/SHS and CPI, see:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/13-551-XIB/free.htm

Using the incomes listed on pages 22 and in that document, your user should be able to code his/her own LICO in those pumfs which are currently missing such a variable - using either the 1986 or 1992 base years specified. Alternatively, the formulae are given from which one could derive LICOs for earlier base years working from earlier versions of FAMEX. It would be a bit of work, but as far as I can tell, it could be done.

2001 Census - Income Information at DA Level

Question

I'm wondering if 2001 census income data at the DA level is available in the same detail as the data is for other geographic levels, e.g. CMAs. When I look through the Electronic Profiles
(http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/profiles/Profiles.cfm)
using the link "Income of Individuals... ," I see that for CMAs I can use the table Cat. No. 95F0492XCB2001004 with 285 variables, which includes everything I'm looking for (esp. variables 5-26 and 197-211). However, for the DA level, there are only 52 variables available, and these don't include the ones I'm looking for.

Does this mean that what I'm looking for doesn't exist at this level for me to download from the DLI server? Or that it's just not available for 'free' (& if so, what would the cost be)?

Answer

For individuals, your variables 5-7 and 24-26 from the CMA/CA profile, are available at the DA level from Basic cross tabulation Table 431: Presence of Income (6) , Age Groups (5A) and Sex (3) for Total Population 15 Years and Over - 95f0431xcb2001001

And for households, your variables 197 and 209-211 are available at the DA level from Table 437: 2000 Household Income (4) and Household Size (3) for Private Households - 95F0437XCB01001

Rule of thumb: the finer the geography, the fewer variables available; the broader the geography, the more variables available. This is because of confidentiality. With the tables you have identified, for instance, the finer the geography, the more likely one would be able to identify a particular individual's income. Statistics Canada does not want this to happen.

If someone wants data for a finer geography and this data is not available through DLI, they would have to custom order the data. And, Statistics Canada would only give (well, actually sell) them the data if there was no problem with confidentiality.

To purchase data from STC contact infostats
http://www.statcan.ca/cgi-bin/statcomment.pl

Statistics for the Maritimes

Question

A patron is looking for the following information by Census Division for 1950 to the present for the maritime provinces - NB, NS, and PEI - income per capita, unemployment, average wages, births deaths and population. She was referred to the Taxfiler Data files but they are only available for 1995-1999. Any ideas where I should go to get this info for the other years?

Answer

For income per capita, and/or average wages:
1983-1989: Income estimates for sub-provincial areas (print; STC 13-216)
1984-1988: Urban FSA and rural postal code summary data (print; STC 17-602)
other years: census years only (1951, 1961, 1971 1981-2001)
(remember that prior to 1971, the census collected only earned income, and only in census years ending in '1' prior to 1986)

For unemployment:
all years: census years only (1951, 1961, 1971 1981-2001)
1976-2003: Labour force historical review (by economic region only, not census division)

For births, deaths, and population, there is CD-level data in CANSIM I & II:
1925-1970: Vital statistics (print only; STC 84-202)
1971-1973: 84-204 (table 6)
1974-1976: Principal vital statistics by local areas (84-207)
1976/77-1986: CANSIM I matrices 6486, 6487 6488, or CANSIM II 51-0030
1987/87-2001: CANSIM I matrices 9236, 9237 and 9238, or CANSIM II: matrices 51-0014, 51-0015

Also, Taxfiler Data files may be available in print for previous years - check your collection.