Women who have completed fertility: how many have or have not ever given birth?

Question
This is one of those "seems like it should be obvious" questions, but...

A patron has asked me what percent of women in different age cohorts
(specifically, in their 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s at some specific point) over
time have given birth to at least one child. Percent who have never given
birth would also be acceptable, of course. I've been having a surprising
amount of difficulty with this. The SLID has a question on number of
children ever, and I think the 1993 person file PUMF includes variables
that will let me compute an estimate, but I was wondering if anyone had
any better or more recent suggestions. There are plenty of sources that
give averages, but not breakdowns.

Answer

1) The 1971 and 1981 individual censuses(PUSTs) asked number of children ever
born of (sometime-married) women; the 1991 census (PUMS, Basic Summary
Tabulation B9105) expanded it (in variable Fertility) to all women age 15+;
and then it was dropped from the Census, as far as I can tell.

2) The data described above is your best bet.  I checked with both Census Division and Health Statistics Division (for vital statistics) and neither one of them can offer anything further.

The relevant products for "number of children ever born" are:

- CANSIM Table 075-0018: Historical statistics, number of children ever born per 1,000 ever-married women aged 15 years and over, every 10 years (persons) *Terminated* (for 1961 and 1971)

- 1981 Census print publication called "Population: Nuptiality and fertility" (Catalogue no. 92-906, Volume 1 - National series) contains a table called "Women Ever Married by Age Groups"

- 1991 Census print publication called "Fertility" (Data Products: Nation Series: catalogue no. 93-321-XPB)

3) I'm not sure if the desire is for a time series or just the distribution of women who
have given birth by age cohort.  If its the latter, the data that immediately come to
mind are the family cycles in the GSS.  For example, Cycles 20 (2006) and 15 (2001) both
contain questions about the number of children given birth to (COR_Q042).  While you
won't be able to obtain estimates for smaller areas of geography, you can get an estimate
for Canada and the more populous provinces.

Follow-up Question

Would it be possible to have someone from Census Division offer their explanation of why they consider it no longer important to ask this question?   I was under the impression that this is a rather fundamental element of demographic information.

Follow-up Answer

1) There is a continuous battle of which questions will be on the Census because there is always great demand for new content and new questions. This question was asked every ten year and was dropped in 1981. The idea is that it may not necessary to ask that question on the Census but other survey may be as appropriate to get that information. But I don't think it was picked up in other surveys.

I would suggest that the timing is right if you want to voice this information as a need:

http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2011/consultation/index-eng.cfm

There is a forum for consultation for the 2011 Census. This is a discussion forum specifically for that type of questions and identifying needs for 2011.

2) Don't forget too the Comparison of the census and alternative sources of
data (Source: 2001 Census consultation guide./ Statistics Canada
(92-125-GIE))

The 2006 version doesn't include fertility, so isn't particularly useful,
but the 1996 one did:
http://prod.library.utoronto.ca:8090/datalib/data/cc96/doc/e-s05-g1.pdf

Saskatchewan Birth Rates

*Note: Correspondence translated from the original French.

Question

I'm looking for the Saskatchewan birth rates from 2005 to 2008. I found the previous years (1994-2004) in the publication #91-213, but for the more recent years they don't give the number of births (in all the publications I consulted including Cansim and the Monthly Statistical Review of Saskatchewan). Is this data available?

Answer

I found the Saskatchewan birth rates for 2005 to 2008 on the following Statistics Canada web page:

http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l02/cst01/demo04b-fra.htm

By default, this table presents the number of births, but they can choose birth rates from the menu on the left (under the title "Dans cette série"). Please note the figures for 2007-2008 are provisional.

Follow-up Question

Thank you! The same research asks if such data exists for different regions in the interior of the provinces (or even another province besides Quebec)?

Follow-up Answer

Sorry for the delay in answering your question. I needed to hear back from a number of Statistics Canada people to be certain.

An analyst at the demography division says the birth rates are not easily available for the other geographic provincial levels. It should be calculated with the population estimates and number of births (a personalized totalization). Nevertheless, they recommend using fertility rate totals, which is available at the CMA level for 2005 at the following publication:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-bin/af-fdr.cgi?l=eng&loc=/pub/91-209-x/91-209-x2004000-fra.pdf



I hope this helps.

Rural Birth Rate

Question

I have a patron looking for birth rate statistics for Canadian rural areas.  I've looked through ESTAT and the Census webpages with no joy.  Am I missing something?

Answer

1) Figure 2.6 in the publication, "Demographic Changes in Canada from 1971
to 2001 across an Urban-to-Rural Gradient" shows the
total fertility rate for rural and urban areas from 1971 to 2001.  The
publication is available at:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91f0015m/91f0015m2007008-eng.htm

These rates were based on Census data.

The online publication, "Births" (84F0210X) contains a section on fertility but doesn't
break out the differences between urban and rural.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/84f0210x/2006000/5201672-eng.htm

The data source for this publication is the Births Database in Vital
Statistics.

The General Social Survey's Family Cycle (c20 is the latest) provides
some fertility data.  The public use file has a variable (LUC_RSTC) indicating
rural/urban residence, but only for Quebec, Ontario and B.C.

2) For Quebec, you can have birth rate statistics by regions through the Institut de la statistique du Québec Web Site.
http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/regions/profils/region_00/region_00.htm

If you follow this link, you will get a map and then will be able to click on each region, click on "demographie" and then on "taux de natalité".

I would be surprised these data not being available for other provinces.

3) There may be a specific reason why the individual is looking for birth rate, and, if that is the case, as indicated, births will be reported in the provinces' vital statistics.  Here is one link that should take you to the vital stats for each province.
http://canadaonline.about.com/od/vitalstatistics/Vital_Statistics_Offices_in_Canada.htm].

However, I wonder how reliably "birth rate" for a specific provincial geopolitical area[i.e. county] in a province can be translated into "rural". I think there may be a problem if provincial registrar's haven't categorized birth data as "rural/nonrural" now and through time. I don't think they have. As well, there would be a problem with definition.

Bollman's and Clemenson's working paper published late last year may be useful for definitions and data:
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/collection_2008/statcan/21-601-M/21-601-m2008090-eng.pdf

For subprovincial areas, the researcher may wish to look at census figures over a given period, ages 0-4, for CDs, for example.

4) I haven't paid close attention to this so I hope what I have to say is relevant; if I'm off-topic, I apologize for jumping in.  Anyhow, I think it's important to realize that many of the births in the urban areas would have occurred in the rural area, if facilities and personnel were in place to provide this service.

Birth and Death Rates for Sackville, N.S.

Question

I have a student looking for birth and death rates for Sackville, Nova Scotia. This is a "Designated Place" according to the Census people. I can't seem to get to birth and death rates for anything other than provinces when using CANSIM. Sackville, N.S. is part
of the Halifax Regional Municipality and is served by the Cobequid Community Health Board. She can't seem to get information from HRM or the Health Board.

Any and all suggestions are welcome. I suspect it is another one of the situations where the raw data is collected, but no calculating is done or at least published on this level of geography.

Answers

1. Birth and death statistics were included in the 1996 Community Profiles. If you go to the STC website and select "Community profiles" from the left sidebar menu, you will find a link to the 1996 Community profiles in the bottom right of this page. A search for Sackville, NS results in two choices: both Subdivision C for Halifax. Taking this link will allow you to pick "Births and Deaths" from the following page.

2. Another alternative is to use Annual demographic statistics, which contains births, deaths, and population by county (=census division). From births/deaths and population, one can compute birth and death rates. Of course, It requires assuming that the birth/death rates for the county in also hold for Sackville, but it might be faster than waiting for birth/death stats to show up in the 2001 Community profiles.

3. Birth and death rates are available by county in the Nova Scotia Vital Statistics Annual Report
(http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/vstat/annualreports/) .
Totals are also given for all incorporated areas (over 1000) but Sackville is not one of them.

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.