Statistics Canada takes great care to ensure that no publicly-released Census data can be used to identify an individual person or business.
This means that some data cannot be released, or must be combined (aggregated) into larger categories or bigger geographic areas to prevent such disclosure.
The 2011 Census was very different than ones that came before and after it. Instead of having two mandatory Census forms (short and long), it had one mandatory short Census form and a voluntary National Household Survey (NHS).
The 2011 Census contained only 10 questions that were answered by ALL Canadian households. When you search the 2011 Census, you will only find statistics on numbers of people and households, age, sex, language (official or not), family status, and dwelling type. You will NOT find information on occupations, income, and all of the other details that were formerly covered by the long-form Census.
In 2011, A sample of households had the option to fill out a supplementary National Household Survey (NHS) that asked an additional 60 questions. You must search for the 2011 NHS data separately from the 2011 Census. Because of the different methods used, you cannot combine 2011 Census data with 2011 NHS data.
For more info, see the 2011 NHS tab on this guide.
A Census Profile lists responses to Census questions for the level of geography that you choose. This is often the only source of data for very small geographic areas.
What you can do with a profile?
How can you get one specific profile?
How can you get many profiles, all at once?
What's in the highlight tables:
- a few key indicators from each Census topic
- tables provide counts, % distribution and sometimes % change figures from 2006 Census
- smallest geographic area: Census Subdivision = municipality level (definition of CSD)
What you can do with the highlight tables:
- select specific geographic area(s) and sort columns
- some tables include a "figure": a ready-made chart or graph
These tables typically combine at least four variables to provide a much more in-depth portrait of an area than the Profiles. Many of these variables are broken down to a very fine level of detail. Some tables are available at the Census Tract level, but most are not, due to the need for confidentiality.
An Example of a Topic-Based Tabulation:
To make sense of what this table can tell you, it helps to separate out the variables (also called 'dimensions') that it includes:
Working with Topic-Based Tabulations:
When you view this table on the Statistics Canada website (in HTML), you can only manipulate a few of these variables. You can't see every combination. For maximum flexibility, you must download the statistics into CSV or TAB formats to view in a spreadsheet program like Excel, or into IVT format to analyze in Beyond 20/20 software (free download, Windows version only).
Easy-to-search mapping tool for 2011 Census data and geographic boundaries.
The tables on the Statistics Canada website are fairly 'fixed'; you can only customize the tables to a limited extent.
You can export most tables in other formats (for example .csv) for use with spreadsheet software such as Excel.
Many tables are available in Beyond 20/20 (.ivt) format. This software allows you to work with the data to create very customized tables with different cross-tabulations.