Question
REQUEST to add CT-level Census data for 1961, 1971, and 1981 to E-STAT.
A Faculty Member in our History Department is looking for an effective, straight forward, non-time consuming, and uncomplicated way, for his upper year undergrad history students (Historical Research Methods), to have access to the historical census data in geographic contexts. Here is an excerpt from the Prof's email to me:
"I am a professor in the history department, and I would like to use historical census data for a methods class that I will be teaching and research next semester. I would like students to be able to select variables and download their own census tables for analysis. I was hoping to use data with geographic specificity, particularly the tract-level data that is available to our students via the CHASS server at the University of Toronto (Canadian Census Analyzer). Unfortunately, the [historical] data available through CHASS are not readily readable in SPSS, the software that I would like students to use. Instead, the command files are missing important information (likely they are quite old) and they generate files that need a good deal of processing before they can be used. Do you know whether we can access this same data through some other service? "
In subsequent, very helpful, discussions with Chuck Humphrey, this idea came forward: "... a request could be made of E-STAT to add CT-level Census data for 1961, 1971, and 1981. "
How best to submit this request? Would there be general support/interest, in the DLI community, regarding this E-STAT development request?
Answers and Responses
1. Thank you for the excellent suggestion. We are aware this data is missing from E-STAT and we are looking at this matter. We will let you know of our decision. Do not hesitate to contact the Learning Resources team (education@statcan.ca) should you have any questions.
2. First of all, I should clarify that the Census profile files that are available via the CHASS interface for the 1961 and 1971 Censuses are not Stats Can products at all.
One of our graduate students here at UT took and aggregated the 1961 from the EA-level basic summary tables, and produced the files that are available in the CHASS interface. For 1961, the file is not strictly speaking a profile file, but is all characteristics that were in the original 1961 EA-level files, with the exception of any averages (means, medians, etc) that we could not recreate from the original EA files, because we lacked either the numerator, the denominator, or both in those files. However, since these files for the most part are either uni- or at most bi-variate distributions, we decided that they were more profile-like than not. We have done some spot checking to make sure we were getting the same numbers as the print profiles, but have checked by no means all of the CTs in Canada.
For the 1971 profile file, we extracted from the many 1971 CT-level basic summary tapes those characteristics that most closely approximated the print profile product from that census. Like with 1971, we did some spot checking against the print publications, but nothing like a comprehensive check. One or two variables we would have liked to include we had to drop because we couldn’t recreate what was in the print publications for them (housing value was I believe one of them).
In other words, for those two profile files, Statistics Canada may be the author of the content, but UofT Data Library Service is responsible for the edition. Whether it is appropriate for STC to put these into E-stat, or instead recreate the work we did and produce their own editions of these profiles, is a question on which there might be several points of view.
The 1981 census profile was the first machine-readable census profile file that I am aware of Statistics Canada having produced. I see no problems therefore in STC putting those profiles in E-stat.
Thursday, March 9, 2006
NOC and SOC concordance
Question
Request for the concordance table between the NOC 2001 and the SOC 1991. This table is not available through the FTP site. Any chance that it could be made available through DLI?
Answer
If you have access to the print publication “National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2001″ (catalogue number 12-583-XPE). It is a print volume, but has the concordance tables at the end (starting on page 669) for SOC 1991 and NOC 2001. The Excel files are also now available on the FTP : dli/standard_classifications/concordance.
Request for the concordance table between the NOC 2001 and the SOC 1991. This table is not available through the FTP site. Any chance that it could be made available through DLI?
Answer
If you have access to the print publication “National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2001″ (catalogue number 12-583-XPE). It is a print volume, but has the concordance tables at the end (starting on page 669) for SOC 1991 and NOC 2001. The Excel files are also now available on the FTP : dli/standard_classifications/concordance.
Birth Weight and Income
Question
A patron is looking for statistics on low birth weight and low income families. I was able to pull a few things out of the Health Reports - does anyone have any further suggestions?
Answer
You could try the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. This survey, which has several parts, has variables dealing with Birth Weight and Income. For example:
Income distribution:
National Longitudinal Survey of Children - Cycle 1 - Rel 2 - Primary File - 1996
AINHD01A - Recoded household income
Missing Values: 96, 98, 99
Value Label
1 Less than 10 - 000
2 10 - 000 to 14 - 999
3 15 - 000 to 19 - 999
4 20 - 000 to 29 - 999
5 30 - 000 to 39 - 999
6 40 - 000 or more
96 M NOT APPLICABLE
97 DON'T KNOW
98 M REFUSAL
99 M NOT STATED
There is a variable dealing with LICO ratios… (below, unweighted). It appears that the other Low Income variables are suppressed on this dataset. This file also has a Birth Weight question.
I found these variables by searching for keywords (birth weight) in the question text database at URL: http://db.library.queensu.ca/allvars/
A patron is looking for statistics on low birth weight and low income families. I was able to pull a few things out of the Health Reports - does anyone have any further suggestions?
Answer
You could try the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. This survey, which has several parts, has variables dealing with Birth Weight and Income. For example:
Income distribution:
National Longitudinal Survey of Children - Cycle 1 - Rel 2 - Primary File - 1996
AINHD01A - Recoded household income
Missing Values: 96, 98, 99
Value Label
1 Less than 10 - 000
2 10 - 000 to 14 - 999
3 15 - 000 to 19 - 999
4 20 - 000 to 29 - 999
5 30 - 000 to 39 - 999
6 40 - 000 or more
96 M NOT APPLICABLE
97 DON'T KNOW
98 M REFUSAL
99 M NOT STATED
There is a variable dealing with LICO ratios… (below, unweighted). It appears that the other Low Income variables are suppressed on this dataset. This file also has a Birth Weight question.
I found these variables by searching for keywords (birth weight) in the question text database at URL: http://db.library.queensu.ca/allvars/
Block face files for 2001 census - Victoria CMA
Question
Could you please confirm if the requested files are available through the DLI, and if not, redirect me to whomever I need to contact to acquire these files.
An honours student needs the block face boundary files for Victoria CMA 59935, described below:
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Reference/dict/geo003.htm
We think they're not available through DLI, but could you check please, and if they're not DLI files, find out how much it would cost to purchase this CMA from StatsCan?
Answers and Responses
1. Block-level spatial data is not available through the DLI. It would be a custom request for which the user would pay.
2. It is my understanding that the Road network files for the 2001 census do in fact contain block level boundaries and metadata, and are in fact available thru DLI. The Victoria file is grnf99325r02[a|m]_e.exe, depending on whether you want the Arcinfo or Mapinfo format.
3. There is also the The Road Network File (RNF), 2005. The road to follow is
http://geodepot.statcan.ca/Diss/2006Dissemination/Data/FRR_RNF_e.cfm
4. Regarding the 2005 RNF, see
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/92-500-GIE/2005001/how.htm.
Specifically:
"This product contains one layer of geographic information: road arcs with name, type, direction, class, and address ranges." and
"A polygon layer with Block identifiers is not provided with the 2005 RNF."
If I am interpreting this correctly, while the 2001 RNF may have included a Block Boundary File, this does not seem to be the case with the 2005 RNF.
5. The 2001 RNF does contain a separate polygon layer that are the blocks. There is no block-face level information in the RNF and there are no such thing as block-face boundaries.
The definition of block-face, block and dissemination are from the RNF Guide are below. BFUIDs and attributes are confidential and normally only used in Geography Division and for custom area creation by Geographic Services Consultants in the Regions.
I would strongly recommend the student consider utilizing blocks as the smallest geographic level for her work. And, if she plans to try to aggregate data, she needs to be aware that blocks will cause her distress as the only data available for blocks are the population and dwelling counts. The DA level of geography may be a better choice.
—-
Block
A block is an area bounded on all sides by roads and/or boundaries of standard geographic areas. Blocks cover all the territory of Canada. The block is the smallest geographic area for which population and dwelling counts are disseminated.
Block-face
A block-face is one side of a street between two consecutive features intersecting that street. The features can be other streets, boundaries of standard geographic areas, or limits of map tiles. Block-faces are used for generating block-face representative points, which in turn are used for geocoding and census data extraction when the street and address information is available.
Dissemination Area
The dissemination area is a small, relatively stable geographic unit composed of one or more blocks. It is the smallest standard geographic area for which all census data are disseminated. dissemination areas cover all the territory of Canada.
6. The block-face file was not a product in 2001 due to confidentiality rules. It was a product in 1996 but the rules have since changed. Therefore, DLI cannot have access to the block-face file.
We do not have a formal written rule about why block-face file is no longer available. The decision was made by the Disclosure Avoidance Committee at that time.
Could you please confirm if the requested files are available through the DLI, and if not, redirect me to whomever I need to contact to acquire these files.
An honours student needs the block face boundary files for Victoria CMA 59935, described below:
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Reference/dict/geo003.htm
We think they're not available through DLI, but could you check please, and if they're not DLI files, find out how much it would cost to purchase this CMA from StatsCan?
Answers and Responses
1. Block-level spatial data is not available through the DLI. It would be a custom request for which the user would pay.
2. It is my understanding that the Road network files for the 2001 census do in fact contain block level boundaries and metadata, and are in fact available thru DLI. The Victoria file is grnf99325r02[a|m]_e.exe, depending on whether you want the Arcinfo or Mapinfo format.
3. There is also the The Road Network File (RNF), 2005. The road to follow is
http://geodepot.statcan.ca/Diss/2006Dissemination/Data/FRR_RNF_e.cfm
4. Regarding the 2005 RNF, see
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/92-500-GIE/2005001/how.htm.
Specifically:
"This product contains one layer of geographic information: road arcs with name, type, direction, class, and address ranges." and
"A polygon layer with Block identifiers is not provided with the 2005 RNF."
If I am interpreting this correctly, while the 2001 RNF may have included a Block Boundary File, this does not seem to be the case with the 2005 RNF.
5. The 2001 RNF does contain a separate polygon layer that are the blocks. There is no block-face level information in the RNF and there are no such thing as block-face boundaries.
The definition of block-face, block and dissemination are from the RNF Guide are below. BFUIDs and attributes are confidential and normally only used in Geography Division and for custom area creation by Geographic Services Consultants in the Regions.
I would strongly recommend the student consider utilizing blocks as the smallest geographic level for her work. And, if she plans to try to aggregate data, she needs to be aware that blocks will cause her distress as the only data available for blocks are the population and dwelling counts. The DA level of geography may be a better choice.
—-
Block
A block is an area bounded on all sides by roads and/or boundaries of standard geographic areas. Blocks cover all the territory of Canada. The block is the smallest geographic area for which population and dwelling counts are disseminated.
Block-face
A block-face is one side of a street between two consecutive features intersecting that street. The features can be other streets, boundaries of standard geographic areas, or limits of map tiles. Block-faces are used for generating block-face representative points, which in turn are used for geocoding and census data extraction when the street and address information is available.
Dissemination Area
The dissemination area is a small, relatively stable geographic unit composed of one or more blocks. It is the smallest standard geographic area for which all census data are disseminated. dissemination areas cover all the territory of Canada.
6. The block-face file was not a product in 2001 due to confidentiality rules. It was a product in 1996 but the rules have since changed. Therefore, DLI cannot have access to the block-face file.
We do not have a formal written rule about why block-face file is no longer available. The decision was made by the Disclosure Avoidance Committee at that time.
Licensing questions
Questions
1. Some researchers at Laurentian (and also Ottawa U) are involved in an NRCan grant-funded research projected about the impact of climate change in Sudbury. It seems clear to me that LU and Ottawa U researchers can participate as they are authorized users, using DLI data for academic research and publishing.
However, other groups are also participating in this project: the City of Sudbury and several consulting companies. I know that I cannot provide them with the DLI data. However, I have questions about two scenarios:
a) The non-DLI members would prefer to have Laurentian researchers do all of the research using DLI data. I see from another licensing example online that "Results of the research can be shared with the [non-DLIer], but data cannot" but I'm not sure what level of 'results' this means. Is it basically anything except the raw data, or are there more specific guidelines?
b) The non-DLI members would prefer to contribute directly to the research that involves the DLI data. I know that they will eventually need to contact the DLI directly, but I'd like to provide them with some basic information so that they can make some preliminary decisions. Does each group need to separately negotiate access to a certain dataset? This is currently a five-year project - would the cost be one-time or yearly? And in terms of cost, is it a per-survey cost, or is it based on the specific variables and geography that the researchers are interested in?
2. Western has an official program for “Visiting Graduate Students (Research Only)â€
(http://www.uwo.ca/grad/documentation/visiting_research_only.pdf) under which the student pays a fee to the university, and receives research privileges here, but takes no courses at and receives no transcript from Western.
A Western graduate now studying overseas would like to use Labour Force Survey data for her thesis, but cannot afford the cost of ten years of data. She contacted Statistics Canada Advisory Services, which apparently recommended that she pursue the “visiting graduate student†route as a method of accessing data distributed through the DLI. Further, the indications from Advisory Services reported to me by the student were that this was an established procedure, and that the university largely had discretion as to whom data were provided.
What rights would the visiting graduate student have to use DLI data?
3. "Visiting scholars†and “visiting professors†go through a formal appointment process at the University before they are granted this status. Are they elgible to use DLI data?
4. I have a researcher who as one of our faculty members used DLI info. and wrote a report. She is now working with a non-profit (housing) organization and want to use the results of her DLI based report as part of a new study.
Answers and Responses
1. Answer to question 3 - This case was considered and approved. As the visiting scholar is granted the special status, he is recognised as an authorised user of DLI data.
2. Answer to question 4 - This situation is similar to one we have in our Licencing data base
http://www4.statcan.ca/english/dli/boundary/pages/displaycases.asp
under the title “An independent study that may be used as a business proposalâ€. In this situation the students are doing an independent study for a professor, a business proposal, which might then be used to start a Centre within the university.
In your example †MBA students are required to complete a strategy study for a real corporation or nonprofit organization.†Since these are students at York , a DLI member, they pass that part of the eligibility requirement. Since the use is a requirement of their course work (i.e required in order to obtain a course mark) they pass this eligibility condition. And as you have pointed out "the data is not shared with the corporations/nonprofit organizations, the analysis done on this data is reported to the client in the report and presentation that they give at the end of the study.†They can not allow the corporation to access the data but they can share the results (analysis) in a report.
So in the end it looks like they do meet all of our conditions so you can allow them access to DLI data in order to complete these course requirements.
3. Answer to question 2 - Your question has been reviewed and discussed by the EAC Executive. We have reviewed the Visiting Student website at UWO to gain more insight into the program as well as obtaining additional information and considering the rights and privileges afforded students registered under this program. As you can imagine this was not an easy situation to resolve. However the final decision is that this student can be allowed to access DLI data held at UWO.
According to our understanding, students must make an official application and must meet some kind of official criteria in order to be accepted into this program. Under the Visiting Student program, registrants have the status of and are treated as UWO students. If they were to take any credit courses while “visitingâ€, the credits could be transferred to the university where they are pursuing a degree. As UWO students they are granted full access to UWO services including access to all commercial databases that are part of the Library. Another key factor in our deliberations is that under this program the students are in fact on campus. This is akin to a visiting professor status in a university. Previous access decisions have been in favour of access to DLI data by visiting professors.
Therefore in this situation the student meets the DLI criteria of being recognized as a registered student at a DLI institution and the use of the data is considered academic research.
Access to DLI data in this situation is APPROVED.
4. Answer to question 4 - This case was considered and approved.
We are assuming that the original research part of academic research (published in academic journal, etc.)and was made available to persons other than the researcher.
However, the researcher can not access additional DLI data to supplement the research for the non-profit organisation.
This is consistent with performing a literature review for any new research - if the information is available, you can mention it and draw from it.
1. Some researchers at Laurentian (and also Ottawa U) are involved in an NRCan grant-funded research projected about the impact of climate change in Sudbury. It seems clear to me that LU and Ottawa U researchers can participate as they are authorized users, using DLI data for academic research and publishing.
However, other groups are also participating in this project: the City of Sudbury and several consulting companies. I know that I cannot provide them with the DLI data. However, I have questions about two scenarios:
a) The non-DLI members would prefer to have Laurentian researchers do all of the research using DLI data. I see from another licensing example online that "Results of the research can be shared with the [non-DLIer], but data cannot" but I'm not sure what level of 'results' this means. Is it basically anything except the raw data, or are there more specific guidelines?
b) The non-DLI members would prefer to contribute directly to the research that involves the DLI data. I know that they will eventually need to contact the DLI directly, but I'd like to provide them with some basic information so that they can make some preliminary decisions. Does each group need to separately negotiate access to a certain dataset? This is currently a five-year project - would the cost be one-time or yearly? And in terms of cost, is it a per-survey cost, or is it based on the specific variables and geography that the researchers are interested in?
2. Western has an official program for “Visiting Graduate Students (Research Only)â€
(http://www.uwo.ca/grad/documentation/visiting_research_only.pdf) under which the student pays a fee to the university, and receives research privileges here, but takes no courses at and receives no transcript from Western.
A Western graduate now studying overseas would like to use Labour Force Survey data for her thesis, but cannot afford the cost of ten years of data. She contacted Statistics Canada Advisory Services, which apparently recommended that she pursue the “visiting graduate student†route as a method of accessing data distributed through the DLI. Further, the indications from Advisory Services reported to me by the student were that this was an established procedure, and that the university largely had discretion as to whom data were provided.
What rights would the visiting graduate student have to use DLI data?
3. "Visiting scholars†and “visiting professors†go through a formal appointment process at the University before they are granted this status. Are they elgible to use DLI data?
4. I have a researcher who as one of our faculty members used DLI info. and wrote a report. She is now working with a non-profit (housing) organization and want to use the results of her DLI based report as part of a new study.
Answers and Responses
1. Answer to question 3 - This case was considered and approved. As the visiting scholar is granted the special status, he is recognised as an authorised user of DLI data.
2. Answer to question 4 - This situation is similar to one we have in our Licencing data base
http://www4.statcan.ca/english/dli/boundary/pages/displaycases.asp
under the title “An independent study that may be used as a business proposalâ€. In this situation the students are doing an independent study for a professor, a business proposal, which might then be used to start a Centre within the university.
In your example †MBA students are required to complete a strategy study for a real corporation or nonprofit organization.†Since these are students at York , a DLI member, they pass that part of the eligibility requirement. Since the use is a requirement of their course work (i.e required in order to obtain a course mark) they pass this eligibility condition. And as you have pointed out "the data is not shared with the corporations/nonprofit organizations, the analysis done on this data is reported to the client in the report and presentation that they give at the end of the study.†They can not allow the corporation to access the data but they can share the results (analysis) in a report.
So in the end it looks like they do meet all of our conditions so you can allow them access to DLI data in order to complete these course requirements.
3. Answer to question 2 - Your question has been reviewed and discussed by the EAC Executive. We have reviewed the Visiting Student website at UWO to gain more insight into the program as well as obtaining additional information and considering the rights and privileges afforded students registered under this program. As you can imagine this was not an easy situation to resolve. However the final decision is that this student can be allowed to access DLI data held at UWO.
According to our understanding, students must make an official application and must meet some kind of official criteria in order to be accepted into this program. Under the Visiting Student program, registrants have the status of and are treated as UWO students. If they were to take any credit courses while “visitingâ€, the credits could be transferred to the university where they are pursuing a degree. As UWO students they are granted full access to UWO services including access to all commercial databases that are part of the Library. Another key factor in our deliberations is that under this program the students are in fact on campus. This is akin to a visiting professor status in a university. Previous access decisions have been in favour of access to DLI data by visiting professors.
Therefore in this situation the student meets the DLI criteria of being recognized as a registered student at a DLI institution and the use of the data is considered academic research.
Access to DLI data in this situation is APPROVED.
4. Answer to question 4 - This case was considered and approved.
We are assuming that the original research part of academic research (published in academic journal, etc.)and was made available to persons other than the researcher.
However, the researcher can not access additional DLI data to supplement the research for the non-profit organisation.
This is consistent with performing a literature review for any new research - if the information is available, you can mention it and draw from it.
Quebec Statistics Based on Provincial Electoral Districts
Question
A student is looking for socio-demographic information from Quebec by provincial electoral districts for the time period around 1998. She is looking for data related to language, ethnic origin, education and income.
Does StatCan collect any information by this geographic designation?
Is anyone else aware of a source we may use?
Answers
1. Statistics Canada does disseminate information at the Federal Electoral District level, but only through the Census. Your user has two choices - 1996 Census or 2001 Census.
2. A longshot - did 1998 Quebec provincial electoral boundaries (QPEB) coincide with federal ones, as I think they now do in Ontario? Probably too much to hope for, but worth investigating.
Do you have a GIS map of the 1998 QPEB? If you did, you could work with EA-level maps from the 1996 Census, match the demographic data onto the map, overlay the QPEB, and combine the EAs that fall within the QPEB. The problem would be dealing with the EAs that straddle QPEB boundaries.
Someone who knows a GIS would be able to describe this better, but the upshot is that you may be able to generate what the user needs from what we already have through DLI. It won’t be perfect, but it may be better than nothing.
3. A link to a provincial election website that contains some great information.
http://www.electionsquebec.qc.ca/en/statistical_data.asp
A student is looking for socio-demographic information from Quebec by provincial electoral districts for the time period around 1998. She is looking for data related to language, ethnic origin, education and income.
Does StatCan collect any information by this geographic designation?
Is anyone else aware of a source we may use?
Answers
1. Statistics Canada does disseminate information at the Federal Electoral District level, but only through the Census. Your user has two choices - 1996 Census or 2001 Census.
2. A longshot - did 1998 Quebec provincial electoral boundaries (QPEB) coincide with federal ones, as I think they now do in Ontario? Probably too much to hope for, but worth investigating.
Do you have a GIS map of the 1998 QPEB? If you did, you could work with EA-level maps from the 1996 Census, match the demographic data onto the map, overlay the QPEB, and combine the EAs that fall within the QPEB. The problem would be dealing with the EAs that straddle QPEB boundaries.
Someone who knows a GIS would be able to describe this better, but the upshot is that you may be able to generate what the user needs from what we already have through DLI. It won’t be perfect, but it may be better than nothing.
3. A link to a provincial election website that contains some great information.
http://www.electionsquebec.qc.ca/en/statistical_data.asp
Search on Statistics Canada website
Tomorrow, Statistics Canada is launching a change in the way its search engine looks for content on its website. Until now, when more than one word was entered in a query in the simple site search, the search engine looked for any of those words to satisfy the query. Beginning tomorrow, the search will by default return results for only those documents that contain all of the words in the query. This change applies only to simple search of the entire site. Advanced search options remain as before, where one may specify any words, all words, or phrase searches. Any feedback is welcome and can be addressed to infostats@statcan.ca
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