2016 Census Collection Complete – Best Response Rate Ever!

Statistics Canada has announced that the collection phase of the 2016 Census is now complete and the overall response rate of 98.4 percent.

“The 2016 Census will provide high-quality information for virtually all communities across Canada,” said Chief Statistician Wayne R. Smith. “We thank Canadians for making this the best census since 1666.”

First results from the Census will be published in February 2017 and continue until November 2017.

Canadians’ overwhelming response enables ‘best ever’ Census in 2016

2016 Census Program release schedule

Statistics Canada Announces Dates for 2016 Census Releases

Statistics Canada is pleased to announce the 2016 Census Program release schedule and topics.

Within a year, Statistics Canada will release the first data from the 2016 Census. Data on population and dwelling counts will be released on February 8, 2017, launching an accelerated release schedule that will provide Canadians with all data in a more timely fashion than for any previous census.

In less than three months, Canadians across the country will be completing their 2016 Census questionnaires. By participating, they will become part of the new portrait of Canada.

For the first time, all census data will be released within 18 months of collection. In addition, in preparation for the population and dwelling release, key geographic information, including reference materials and boundary files, are scheduled for release on November 16, 2016.

Now online – 2016 Census Program release schedule

The CANSIM Crash Diet at Statistics Canada

This post comes courtesy of the Canadian Social Research Newsletter, March 2, 2014 edition (http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/personal/news020314.htm).

The CANSIM Crash Diet at Statistics Canada

WARNING: If you’re not a number-crunching social policy historian who believes
in accountability and transparency, you might just want to skip the following rant.


And another one gone
And another one gone,
Another one bites the dust.
[Source : Queen]

Statistics Canada’s world-class data collection has been trimmed, again.
February 24, 2014
By Gilles:
As a result of the 2012 federal budget cuts, there are now 2,000+ fewer workers at StatCan [ http://goo.gl/1aI6i ] — out of a workforce of about 5,000.
The 2012 budget cuts are leading directly to reductions in the amount of public information StatsCan collects and produces, and they could lead to data collection and processing services being contracted out (if they’re not already doing it…)

The latest victim of the budget cuts is the collection of tables in the CANSIM database.
Here’s a sample deleted table:
TERMINATED: Table 384-0009 Government transfer payments to persons, provincial economic accounts
http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a05?searchTypeByValue=1&lang=eng&id=3840009&pattern=3840009
On this table, you’ll find five years’ worth (2005 to 2009) of national statistics PLUS archives going back to 1981 on federal and provincial government transfer payments to individuals and organizations for almost 20 programs, from Old Age Security to Employment Insurance (federal) and Workers’ Compensation to Social Assistance (provincial/territorial).
TERMINATED.
WTF?

I went to the CANSIM home page [ http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/home-accueil?lang=eng ] looking for an announcement regarding what other CANSIM tables had bitten the dust and when. There was not one word on the home page about the CANSIM Crash Diet. If you’d like to know the full extent of the terminated tables for the complete collection, you’ll have to drill down each of the 31 topics on the home page to see the specific tables. I checked only a few categories, but the number of deleted/terminated tables was depressing.
[ *Terminated* tables appear in a grey box at the end of each subsection. ]

A few examples:

For the category “Aboriginal peoples” : 4 tables terminated out of a total of 7
For the category “Children and youth” : 89 tables terminated out of a total of 130
For the category “Families, households and housing” : 67 tables terminated out of a total of 112
For the category “Government” : 62 tables terminated out of a total of 141
For the category “Income, pensions, spending and wealth” : 41 tables terminated out of a total of 167
For the category “Seniors” : 13 tables terminated out of a total of 30

One of StatCan’s two stated objectives is “To provide statistical information and analysis about Canada’s economic and social structure to develop and evaluate public policies and programs and to improve public and private decision-making for the benefit of all Canadians.” (The second objective is “To promote sound statistical standards and practices…”).
Source:
ABOUT CANSIM
[ http://www.statcan.gc.ca/about-apercu/mandate-mandat-eng.htm

How much longer will StatCan be considered world class, I wonder…

And while we’re lamenting the passing of rich online resources that the federal government has recently terminated, here are a few other reports that are now accessible only via an archiving site like Archive.org [ https://archive.org/ ] :

[R.I.P.] Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2008
http://web.archive.org/web/20111231091756/http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/publications_resources/social_policy/sasr_2008/page00.shtml
Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2008 is the fifth annual joint publication by federal, provincial and territorial governments. This report includes a description of, and statistics related to, the welfare system in each province and territory, information about federal-provincial-territorial jurisdictional and funding issues, a bit of historical info on the Canada Assistance Plan and the Canada Health and Social Transfer, etc.

[R.I.P.] Social Security Statistics, Canada and Provinces, 1978-79 to 2002-03
http://web.archive.org/web/20070814082442/http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/cs/sp/sdc/socpol/tables/page00.shtm
This report offers 25 years of longitudinal data on costs and numbers of beneficiaries for most programs – over 100 tables – covering a large number of programs — here’s a partial list : Child Tax Benefit, Family Allowances, the Child Tax Credit, Old Age Security/Guaranteed Income Supplement/Spouse’s Allowance (“The Allowance”), Federal Training and Employment Programs, Federal Goods and Services Tax Credit, the Canada/Quebec Pension Plans, War Veterans’ and Civilian War Allowances, Veterans’ and Civilians’ Disability Pensions, Unemployment/Employment Insurance, the Canada Assistance Plan, Workers’ Compensation, Youth Allowances, Social Assistance and Social Services for Registered Indians — and more…

– Go to the Social Statistics Links page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/stats.htm

Data day will not be celebrated in Hamilton

This is a guest post by Sara Mayo, Social Planner with Social Planning & Research Council of Hamilton. This is on the eve of the first release of data from the National Household Survey, which replaced the long-form census in Canada. The original post can be found here.


SPRC reserves judgement on NHS data until questions are answered about data quality

By Sara Mayo, Social Planner

On May 8, Statistics Canada will be releasing the first data from the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS). Major new data releases are usually hotly anticipated and a busy time for social planners, but the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton has decided that we will not be commenting or reporting on the new NHS data at that time, including trends on Immigration, Aboriginals, Ethnic Origin, Language and Religion that will be released by Statistics Canada.

Since the news of the cancellation of the 2011 Census long form, the SPRC has been clear that the voluntary NHS is a poor replacement. The cancellation of the 2011 Census long form was a hasty decision by the federal government, without any notice or consultation with Canadians, and the negative effects will be felt for years to come. At a community forum on the Census that we organized  in September 2010, Code Red for Neighbourhood Data, organizations across Hamilton voiced their concerns that the cancellation of the long form would harm planning for new schools, immigration settlement services, poverty reduction strategies, youth programming at community centres, services for working parents, and neighbourhood improvements, among many others.

While NHS response rates have been better than the low benchmark of 50% set by Statistics Canada, they are still much lower than for the Census long form. 94% of households completed the Census long form in 2006, while the average NHS response rate for Canada was 68.9% (67.6% for Ontario). In the city of Hamilton, only 65.3% of households who received the survey answered it.

Statistics Canada’s own estimates show that NHS survey respondents are not representative of the population. Their analysis shows that raw NHS data from the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area overreports people earning a high income, those who are university educated, Canadians who work in the public administration industry, or in business, finance or administrative occupations and Chinese Canadians. Conversely, raw NHS data from the Toronto region undercounts the number of low income Canadians, the number without a high school diploma or less, those working in construction and transportation, Black Canadians, non-citizens, Aboriginals, and those who have moved in the last year. Accurate estimates of these populations are critical to social planning.

Our own analysis of response rates by Social Planning Network of Ontario communities (Table 1), shows a general trend whereby communities with low NHS response rates usually have higher poverty rates. The major outliers to this trend are the cities of Toronto, Markham, and Mississauga and the town of Richmond Hill, which all have higher than average poverty rates, yet higher than average NHS response rates. This may be explained in part by the higher NHS response rate of Chinese Canadians (who are a large portion of residents in these cities) as reported by Statistics Canada.

Table 1: Social Planning Network of Ontario Communities, NHS response rate and poverty levels

Community Social Planning Network of Ontario member

NHS raw response rate

Poverty rate (before tax LICO, 2006 Census)

Ajax Community Development Council Durham

72.5%

10.9%

Belleville Community Development Council of Quinte

68.3%

15.1%

Brampton Social Planning Council of Peel

68.9%

13.9%

Burlington Community Development Halton

76.7%

9.5%

Caledon Social Planning Council of Peel

67.9%

4.4%

Cambridge Social Planning Council of Cambridge & North Dumfries

70.0%

9.6%

Clarington Community Development Council Durham

70.8%

5.9%

Cornwall Social Development Council of Cornwall & Area

63.0%

21.1%

Greater Sudbury Social Planning Council of Sudbury

64.8%

12.7%

Halton Hills Community Development Halton

71.9%

5.1%

Hamilton Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton

65.3%

18.1%

Kingston Social Planning Council of Kingston & District

69.6%

15.4%

Kitchener Social Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo

72.0%

11.8%

Markham Social Planning Council of York Region

76.1%

16.1%

Milton Community Development Halton

70.2%

5.0%

Mississauga Social Planning Council of Peel

72.9%

15.7%

Oshawa Community Development Council Durham

66.5%

12.9%

Ottawa Social Planning Council of Ottawa

74.3%

15.2%

Peterborough Peterborough Social Planning Council

63.8%

17.0%

Pickering Community Development Council Durham

72.0%

9.9%

Richmond Hill Social Planning Council of York Region

72.9%

15.8%

Thunder Bay Lakehead Social Planning Council

67.6%

13.8%

Tillsonburg Social Planning Council Oxford

68.8%

9.1%

Timmins Cochrane District Social Planning Council

58.9%

12.7%

Toronto Social Planning Toronto

67.8%

24.5%

Uxbridge North Durham Social Development Council

70.2%

6.2%

Vaughan Social Planning Council of York Region

70.9%

10.6%

Waterloo Social Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo

74.8%

10.8%

Whitby Community Development Council Durham

75.0%

7.0%

Woodstock Social Planning Council Oxford

70.0%

10.6%

Ontario

67.6%

14.4%

Data source: National Household Survey: Final response rates (Statistics Canada)

Statistics Canada has not yet indicated which mitigation strategies they have applied to adjust estimates to compensate for lower response rates among these critical groups. They have also not answered our questions about whether they will be releasing NHS data at lower levels of geography (such as census tracts and dissemination areas). Given the geographic concentration of many demographic groups with low response rates, we are quite concerned that neighbourhood-level data will be very unreliable.

We are especially dismayed that detailed information on data quality in the NHS will not be published until May 8th. As part of a conference call with members of the Community Data Program on October 18 2012, Statistics Canada representatives informed data users that they would be publishing a paper on NHS data quality issues in December 2012. Requests to find out why that document has been delayed have not been answered. When it is finally released, we will examine this paper to better understand data quality issues with the NHS.

At the same time, we want to make clear that we continue to support Statistics Canada staff, and the agency as a whole,  who are facing budget cuts that undermine their ability to obtain reliable data about Canadians. High quality Statistics Canada is used in communities across the country to plan for the population’s needs and to improve quality of life.

Starting on May 8th, the SPRC  will take the time to read Statistics Canada’s analysis of NHS data quality and mitigation strategies, and consult with other data users across the country about their judgment on the reliability and comparability of this data. We will update the community when we have formed an opinion on what uses of NHS data will be most prudent for Hamilton.

2011 National Household Survey (NHS) Concept Brief

The following link takes you to a presentation on a concept brief of Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada based on the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) data set to be released on May 8, 2013.

Click to access smr10_2011_nhs-enm_002-eng.pdf

The NHS replaced the mandatory long form census with a survey whose participation was voluntary. The data on immigration and ethnocultural diversity is the first set of data to be released from the survey. Further information on the NHS and the release schedule can be found at http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/NHS-ENM/index-eng.cfm