Statistics Canada

Statistics Canada (French: Statistique Canada) is the Canadian federal government agency commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. The bureau is commonly called StatCan or StatsCan although StatCan is the official abbreviation. It has regularly been considered the best statistical organization in the world by The Economist, ^[1] such as in the 1991 and 1993 "Good Statistics" surveys. Public Policy Forum and others have also ranked it first.

Statistics is a federal responsibility in Canada and Statistics Canada produces statistics for all the provinces as well as the federal government. In addition to conducting about 350 active surveys on virtually all aspects of Canadian life, Statistics Canada undertakes a country-wide census every five years on the first and sixth year of each decade. By law, every household must complete the census form.^[2] The last Canadian census was held in May 2006, when an Internet version was made widely available for the first time.

Statistics Canada was formed in 1971, replacing the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. The Dominion Bureau of Statistics was formed in 1918. Internationally, Statistics Canada is held in high regard for the quality of its data and its methodology^[3].

Leadership

The head of Statistics Canada is the Chief Statistician of Canada. The heads of Statistics Canada and the previous organization, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, are:

• Robert H. Coats (1918–1942)
• Sedley A. Cudmore (1942–1945)
• Herbert Marshall (1945–1956)
• Walter E. Duffett (1957–1972)
• Sylvia Ostry (1972–1975)
• Peter G. Kirkham (1975–1980)
• James L. Fry (1980)
• Martin B. Wilk (1980–1985)
• Ivan P. Fellegi (1985–2008)
• Munir Sheikh (2008–2010)

Legislation

Statistics Canada is governed by:

• Statistics Act, Revised Statutes of Canada 1985

Publications

Statistics Canada publishes numerous documents covering a range of statistical information about Canada, including census data, economic and health indicators, immigration economics, income distribution, and social and justice conditions. It also publishes a peer-reviewed statistics journal, Survey Methodology. A press release on April 24, 2006, indicated that "effective today, all electronic publications on Statistics Canada's Web site will be available free of charge."^[4] though these free publications are only overviews of the raw data, which can often be only available under CANSIM, a fee based service. Statistics Canada does not consider CANSIM to be part of its electronic publications, even though it is also available electronically.

Controversy

Long Standing Issues

Debate over the census and their contents have periodically created changes in the Statistics Act such as a 2005 amendment making the privacy restrictions of the census information expire after more than a century. Some groups such as the Freedom Party of Ontario stand in perpetual opposition to census collection as currently performed based on beliefs of how the data is used and privacy issues ^[5] however their belief that using statistical data to analyze resource allocation is a bad thing does not seem to be a widely held belief. For the most part, issues over the census tend to be lower priority for most Canadians^[6].

Recent Changes

On June 17th 2010 an Order in Council was created by the Minister of Industry defining the questions for the 2011 Census as including only the short-form questions; this was published in the Canada Gazette on June 26th 2010^[7], however a news release was not issued by Minister of Industry Tony Clement until July 13th 2010. This release stated in part "The government will retain the mandatory short form that will collect basic demographic information. To meet the need for additional information, and to respect the privacy wishes of Canadians, the government has introduced the voluntary National Household Survey"^[8] On July 30th 2010 Statistics Canada published a description of the National Household Survey.

The federal Minister of Industry Tony Clement initially indicated that these changes where being made based on consultations with Statistics Canada^[9] but was forced to admit that the change from a mandatory to voluntary form was not one of the recommendations received from StatCan after the head of the organization Munir Sheikh resigned in protest^[3]. The minister now claims that concerns over privacy^[10] and the threat of jail time^[11] are the reasons for the change^[12] and has refused to reverse his decision^[13]stating that the Prime Minister supports this legislation^[14]. The argument over privacy has subsequently been undermined by a Privacy Commissioner statement that she was “satisfied with the measures Statistics Canada had put into place to protect privacy”^[15]. Other industry professionals have also come out in defense of Statistics Canada’s record on privacy issues^[6][16].

Central to the debate on this issue is the effect on the quality of data which will be collected by Statistics Canada under the new system. Many groups have made the claim that a voluntary system will not provide a quality of data consistent with what Statistics Canada is known for^{[3][13][6][16]} while others feel that politically motivated changes to StatCan methodology taints the reputation of the whole organization in the international setting. ^[17] Supporters of the change have offered models of European countries who are adopting alternate systems^[10], although in these states the census is being replaced with a database of information on each citizen rather than a voluntary poll and none of these systems are planned for the Canadian 2011 census. They also challenge the current system’s ability to cope with rapid socio-demographic changes, though this would not be addressed without increasing the frequency of the survey. Public reaction to this legislation has been largely opposed to the change including through social media networks such as Facebook ^[18].

As of this writing the issue remains unresolved.

Terms

Statistics Canada uses a variety of terms to designate regions in Canada for statistical purposes:

• Census Agglomeration: Metropolitan areas where the core city is greater than 10,000 but smaller than 100,000 people
• Census Metropolitan Area: Metropolitan areas where the core city is greater than 100,000 people
• Census division: Collection of census subdivisions
• Census subdivision: Cities, towns, municipalities, etc.
  • City
  • Chartered community: found in the Northwest Territories
  • County municipality: rural territories in Alberta
  • Community: villages in Prince Edward Island
  • Canton: Townships in Quebec
  • United cantons: Townships which have been united in Quebec
  • District municipality: Rural or urban territories of British Columbia
  • Hamlet: Small communities in the territories
  • Improvement district: Rural territories in Alberta
  • Indian government district: found in British Columbia
  • Inuit land: found in Quebec
  • Island municipality
  • Local government district: found in Manitoba
  • Municipality: Rural territories in Quebec
  • Municipal district: Rural territories in Alberta and Nova Scotia
  • Northern hamlet: found in Saskatchewan
  • Nisga'a land
  • Northern village: found in Saskatchewan and Quebec (Village nordique)
  • Nisga'a village: found in British Columbia
  • Parish: rural territories in Quebec (Parish municipalities) and New Brunswick
  • Indian reserve
  • Rural community
  • Regional district electoral area: Unorganized rural areas in British Columbia
  • Region
  • Regional municipality: At the CSD level, an amalgamation of a large region. Found in Alberta and Nova Scotia
  • Rural municipality: rural territories in Manitoba and Saskatchewan
  • Resort village: found in Saskatchewan
  • Indian settlement
  • Special area: rural territories in Alberta
  • Subdivision of county municipality: rural territories of Alberta
  • Settlement: small communities in the territories
  • Subdivision of unorganized: unorganized rural territories of Newfoundland and Labrador
  • Summer village: found in Alberta
  • Town
  • Township: At the CSD level, only in Ontario
  • Township and royalty: Rural territories in Prince Edward Island
  • Teslin land
  • Reserve lands: found in Quebec
  • Unorganized area
  • Ville: cities and towns in Quebec
  • Cree village: found in Quebec
  • Naksapi village
  • Village
• Urban area
• Designated place

References and notes

External links

• Statistics Canada website
• 2006 Census

Canadian Censuses 1871 • 1881 • 1891 • 1901 • 1906 • 1911 • 1916 • 1921 • 1926 • 1931 • 1936 • 1941 • 1946 • 1951 • 1956 • 1961 • 1966 • 1971 • 1976 • 1981 • 1986 • 1991 • 1996 • 2001 • 2006 • 2011 Statistics Canada  • Population by years  • Population by municipalities