On data quality and data access: The 2011 Canadian Census/NHS

Some of you may have heard the story on The Current (CBC Radio) yesterday about how Without data from the long-form census Canada suffers, experts say.  Economics and Business researchers often rely on census data for a solid and deep understanding of the Canadian population, so the replacement of the mandatory census in 2011 with a voluntary National Household Survey (NHS) has resulted in great concern about the quality of the most recent data.

The impetus for the radio piece was a private member's bill by MP Ted Hsu aimed at bringing back the long-form census. See his blog posts for more on this issue, including the evidence he's been working with.

Coincidentally, just last week  Statistics Canada released the Sampling and Weighting Technical Report, National Household Survey, 2011 (99-002-X) in HTML and PDF formats. This report presents the methods of sampling and weighting used in the 2011 National Household Survey as well as their effect on the results.

Interested in Canadian census data?  Check out the sources below for just a taste of what you have available here at SFU:

• * For more on the 2011 census/survey, including discussions of data quality and links to the actual data tables produced, see this search in our catalogue and go to Canadian Census, 2011.
• * Also see our Canadian Census Analyzer database for census tables from many previous census years (as far back as 1961) with summary statistics for a variety of geographic levels, as well as microdata files with random samples of raw data from census records.
• * Passport GMID, our Euromonitor database, also makes copious use of census data, coupled with other sources and algorithms to produce current estimates and forecasts at a national level.
• * For those who are interested in extremely detailed raw data products, check out our ABACUS database, especially the files concerning the 2011 NHS.
• * And did you know that our SimplyMap Canada database contains census/NHS data from 2006 and 2011, as well as household spending data and current Environics Canada estimates for both census and spending variables -- all in an interface that allows you to map the data to the small-neighbourhood level (dissemination areas) across Canada?

As always, send us a note if you have any questions at all.

We are:

• Mark Bodnar (Business – Burnaby): mbodnar@sfu.ca
• Megan Sorenson (Business – Vancouver): megan_sorenson@sfu.ca
• Ania Dymarz (Business – Surrey): adymarz@sfu.ca
• Carla Graebner (Economics – Burnaby): cgraebne@sfu.ca