Searching the University of Alberta Library’s Statistics

Canada-based Websites

• 2001 Census of Canada• Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics• Canadian Business Patterns

Part I: Introduction to the University of Alberta’s 2001 Census of Canada

Website

2001 Census of Canada on the Statistics Canada Website

How do you find the University of Alberta Census of Canada Website?

From the U of A library homepage either:Go into Databases and search using “Census”. You

will get listings for both the 1996 Census of Canada and the 2001 Census of Canada. These are the two Census of Canada websites the HSS library has set up

ORFrom the library’s homepage, use Find, Data &

Statistics and then click on http://www.library.ualberta.ca/datalibrary/

Click on Census 1996 or Census 2001 in the sidebar

What kind of information will you find in the Census of Canada?

• Demographic characteristics such as age, sex and marital status

• Other information that provides a snapshot of who Canadians were in 2001. This information includes variables such as education, income, work activity, household, family and dwelling characteristics.

If Statistics Canada has a 2001 Census of Canada website, why should we bother with a

U of A 2001 Census of Canada website?

1. The University of Alberta participates in the Data Liberation Initiative. This program provides U of A faculty and students unlimited access to numerous Statistics Canada public use microdata files, databases and geographic files that are not available to the general public.

Data available through Statistics Canada and Through the U of A Libraries

Information Downloaded from Statistics Canada HTML file

Data available through Statistics Canada and Through the U of A Libraries

Data and Statistics – what’s the difference?

The U of A’s Statistics Canada-based websites may contain both data and statistics.

Data (or raw data): Numbers, characters, images, or other methods of recording information. Data on its own has no meaning, only when interpreted by some kind of data processing system does it take on meaning and become information.

Data and Statistics – what’s the difference?

• Statistics – Statistics are produced from data. Statistics are made by application of mathematical functions to collections of data in order to summarise or extrapolate that data. The subject of statistics can be divided into descriptive statistics - describing data, and analytical statistics - drawing conclusions from data.

Part 2: Organization of the University of Alberta’s 2001 Census of Canada

Website.

• The U of A’s 2001 Census of Canada’s website is organized around the product content of the Statistics Canada 2001 Census.

The Two Standard Census of Canada

Products

• Profiles

• Topic-based Tabulations

What’s the difference between the two standard products?

Example of Variables

Community Profiles

What’s the difference between the two standard products? (continued)

Example of A Topic-based Tabulation

Organization of the U of A’s 2001 Census of

Canada Website

Organization of the U of A’s 2001 Census of Canada Website (continued)

Part 3: How the Data is Organized

Organization of the U of A’s 2001 Census of

Canada Website

Organization Within Each of These Sections

Within each of the “Standard Census Products” and the “Special Interest Cross Tabulations”, the data is organized by:

• Variables (i.e., questions from the Census)

• Geography

Example of Organization of Data by Variable

Geography

Census data are disseminated for a number of standard geographic areas. These areas are either administrative or statistical.

Administrative areas

There are two categories:

1. Areas specifically related to how the census information is collected; and

2. Areas specifically related to how the census information is used.

Geography (continued)

Statistical areas are defined by Statistics Canada as part of the spatial frame for disseminating census data. Examples of statistical areas are:

• census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations (CAs),

• urban area, dissemination area (DA). These are made up from groups of adjacent, largely urban

municipalities (Census Subdivisions) that have a high degree of social and economic integration. CMAs and CAs contain approximately 78% of the population of Canada, they cover only 4% of the land area.

Example of Data Organized by Geography

Part 4: How to find Data on the 2001 Census of Canada Website

Open the Statistics Canada 2001 Census Website

Clicking on the “Data” link gets you to the “Standard Data Products” page

Example of Profile or Univariate Data

Example of Topic-based Tabulation, or Multivariate Data

From the “Standard Data Products” page, select either Profiles or Topic-based Tabulations

Profiles: Select your variables to match those in the list.

An example of a list of data sets for a group of variables. These sets vary by geographic division.

An example of the data in an HTML file.

If you choose Topic-based Tabulations . . .

An example of a list of data sets for a group of variables chose from the topic-based tabulations.

An example of the data in an Beyond 20/20 file.

To the right, you will see “Other available searches”

An example of the choices when you choose to search by variable.

Results of a search by variable.

Site Search from the Library Webpages

Library Site Search Using Google

Search Results

Example of Links to Overview Data

Example of the Data Provided by Overview Tables

An example of the tables in the “Overview” information.

Example of Data for a Specific Set of Variables

Example of Data from Specific Data Files

An Example of a Table from this set.

Part 5 Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics

Canadian Business Patterns

How to Find These Websites

The two easiest ways to find these databases are:

• From the library homepage, click “Databases”. Type the name of the database in the search window;

Or• Click on “Site Search” at the bottom of any of the

University of Alberta Library webpages. Type the database name into the “Google” search window.

Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics

Data Tables by Survey

There are a variety of tables within each survey

For example, the Admission Data Table

Statistics

Documents located under the Canadian Crime Statistics Link

An example of the PDF documents found within the Statistics links.

Canadian Business Patterns

Canadian Business Patterns Data Tables

For example, the information for Province/CD, NAICS, June 2002

The Business Register Webpage