CANADA

1. Name and address of the organization responsible for the census:

Statistics Canada, Jean-Talon Building, Section B-2, 1st floor, Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa.

2. Population censuses conducted since 1945 (years):

1951, 1961, 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001. The present description relates to the 2001 population census (held on 15 May).

3. Coverage of the census:

(a) Geographical scope: Whole country.

(b) Persons covered: All persons of all ages, except foreign residents. The labour questions are asked of non-institutional residents 15 years of age and over.

4. Reference period:

The week prior to the census day. If the respondent did not work in the previous week, industry and occupation were to be reported for the job of longest duration since 1st January 2000.

5. Main topics:

(a) Total population, by sex and age: yes

Economically active population by:

(b) Sex and age group: yes

(d) Occupation: yes

(e) Status in employment: yes

(f) Highest educational level: yes

(g) Hours of work: yes

(h) Other characteristics: yes

Re (a): The age is defined either in terms of year of birth or of exact date of birth (day, month and year).

Re (g): Hours of work relate to hours actually worked by employed persons, at work.

Re (h): The census also covers information on other topics, namely: the incorporation status of businesses of self-employed persons; the number of weeks worked in the previous calendar year, whether these were mostly full-time or part-time weeks (not including housework, maintenance or repairs for own home); the sources and levels of income, including earnings from employment.

6. Concepts and definitions:

(a) Economically active population: It comprises all persons aged 15 years and over who, during the reference week, were either employed or unemployed, according to the definitions given below. Questions on economic activity were asked of a 20 per cent sample. The definition covers all members of the armed forces.

(b) Employment: Considered as employed are all persons in the sample who, during the reference week, had a job and either worked hours or were temporarily absent from work for the entire week (i.e. on vacation, strike or lock-out, on sick-leave, maternity leave, bad weather, fire, personal or family responsibilities, etc., excluding temporary lay-off). The questions used to determine whether or not a person was to be considered as employed were: “Last week, how many hours did this person spend working for pay or in self-employment? (Include: working for wages, salary, tips or commission; working in his/her own business, farm or professional practice, alone or in partnership; working directly towards the operation of a family farm or business without formal pay arrangements, e.g. assisting in seeding, doing accounts)” and “Last week, was this person on temporary lay-off or absent from his/ her job or business?”.

It is reported that the following categories are included:

i) persons doing unpaid work in family firm or business;

ii) some persons engaged in the production of primary products for own consumption;

iii) working students with a part-time job (post-secondary students only);

iv) seasonal or occasional workers;

v) conscripts for military/civilian service;

vi) apprentices and trainees.

Persons belonging to categories (i) and (iii), as well as employed persons, temporarily absent from work, can be identified separately by means of specific questions. The identification of working students may be misleading: respondents are asked if they attended school in the past nine months, i.e., since the previous September; this does not necessarily mean that they are still attending school in the reference week or at the same time as they are doing the job reported for industry and occupation (part-time, full-time work etc.).

(c) Unemployment: Considered as unemployed are all persons in the sample who, during the reference week, were without work or on lay-off and expected to return to their job, or had actively looked for work in the past four weeks and were available for work. Also included are persons who had definitive arrangements to start a new job in four weeks or less. The questions used were: “Last week, was this person on temporary lay-off or absent from his/her job or business?”; “Last week, did this person have definite arrangements to start a new job within the next four weeks?”; “Did this person look for paid work during the past four weeks? (For example, did this person contact an employment centre, check with employers, place or answer newspaper ads, etc.?)”, and “Could this person have started a job last week had one been available?”.

7. Classifications used:

Both employed persons and unemployed persons previously employed in the sample are classified by industry, by occupation and by status in employment. Questions were asked of these persons concerning, respectively, their job or business during the reference week or their job of longest duration since 1st January 2000. Multiple job holders during the reference week were asked for the job at which they worked the most hours.

(a) Industry: Based on the questions: “For whom did this person work? (Name of firm, government agency, etc.; section, plant, department, etc.)”; “What kind of business, industry or service was this? (For example: road maintenance, retail shoe store, secondary school, temporary help agency, municipal police, full-service garage, wheat farm, trapping)” and “At what address did this person usually work most of the time?”. For coding industry, 300 unit groups of the North American Industrial Classification System and 285 unit groups of the 1980 Standard Industrial Classification were used. Links to ISIC have not been established; however, an approximation was done for providing data to ILO and other Agencies of the United Nations System at the major division (1-digit) level of ISIC-rev.2.

(b) Occupation: Based on the questions: “What was this person’s work or occupation? (For example: legal secretary, wood furniture assembler, plumber, restaurant manager, fishing guide, secondary school teacher; if in the armed forces, give rank)” and “In this work, what were this person’s main activities? (For example: prepared legal documents, made wood furniture products, installed residential plumbing, managed operations of a restaurant, guided fishing parties, taught mathematics)”. In addition, questions were asked on the address of usual workplace. For coding occupation, 520 unit groups of the 2001 National Occupational Classification – Statistical were used. Links to ISCO have not been established; however, an approximation was done for providing data to ILO and other Agencies of the UN System at the major group (1-digit) level of ISCO-68.

(c) Status in employment: Based on the questions: “In this job or business, was this person mainly: (i) working for wages, salary, tips or commission; (ii) working without pay for his/her spouse or another relative in a family farm or business; (iii) self-employed without paid help (alone or in partnership); (iv) self-employed with paid help (alone or in partnership)?” and for self-employed: “If self-employed, was this person’s farm or business incorporated?”. For coding status in employment, the above-mentioned four groups were used.

(d) Level of education: Based on the questions: “What is the highest grade of secondary (high) school or elementary school attended by this person (completed or not)?”; “How many years of education has this person completed at university?”; “How many years of schooling has this person ever completed at an institution other than a university, a secondary (high) school or an elementary school?” and “What certificates, diplomas or degrees has this person ever obtained?”. The answers to these four questions are normally displayed as 21 detailed categories grouped into seven levels of aggregations. Although the classification is derived independently from the ISCED classification, a correspondence can be obtained with most of the ISCED categories.

8. Main differences compared with the previous census:

No major differences.

9. Publication of the census results:

Tables covering all census topics are available in electronic form on the Statistics Canada Web site at www.statcan.ca.

The organization responsible for these publications is Statistics Canada, Ottawa.

A limited number of census tables are also available in the form of publications.