Intro to Census Data

Finding & manipulating data from Statistics Canada

This presentation covers:

Census geography
How to access census data, both current and historic
Using Beyond 20/20 software

Census Geography

all of Canada
data by province/territory
Census Division (23 in MB)
Census Subdivision

Largest area

Smallest area

Census Metropolitan area
Census Tract

Dissemination area

Census subdivisions can be:

reserves (denoted by IRI following name of reserve)
rural municipalities
towns
villages
etc

The City of Winnipeg is a census subdivision

Winnipeg and Headingley together make up Census Division #11

The area surrounding Winnipeg is included in the Winnipeg Census Metropolitan Area

Census Metropolitan Areas are divided into Census Tracts.

Census tracts are a level of census geography commonly used when researching large cities.

Census tract geography changes over time due to population thresholds.

Stats Canada Homepage:

statcan.gc.ca

Finding a specific census area #:

Accessing Census Data

Stats Can website: statcan.gc.ca
Census in top menu
Further down that page:

Data Products

A variety of data products & visualizations are available. Most of the easy-to-use options provide data for large levels of geography - country-wide, province- or territory-wide, city-wide.

Census Profiles: provide data describing a single variable
- useful for quick fact checking

To access census subdivision data:

Data Products page:

Search by

place name
postal code
geographic code

Download datasets

IVT = multidimensional table file

for use with Beyond 20/20 software

Getting Started with

Beyond 20/20

Key terms:

dimension: an attribute of table data, such as sex, geography, time, etc. Tables can have up to 10 dimensions.
item: an element of a dimension. E.g. Female is an item of the sex dimension.
label: a title or display heading of an item. An item may have multiple labels: e.g. census tract #, geographic ID #...

Dimensions:

Census profile (population & more)
Sex
Geography - not active in image below

Click & drag dimension names to view values in the table

Geography is now the active dimension (name highlighted in black, name visible in drop-down menu)

The Search tool can be used to skip to the geography of your choice

The first column of Winnipeg (602) data is a summary total of all of Winnipeg's census tracts

Right-click column label > Show All

to see neighbouring rows

A few more B2020 tips:

Selecting columns or rows:
- Click & drag to select nearby adjacent items
- CTRL + click for non-adjacent items
- To select a large range, click first item, SHIFT + click last item
In top menu, Item > Show to see only selected items
File > Save As - export as an Excel worksheet, CSV, etc

Finding Historical Census Data

Scroll on main Census Program page:

Census tracts were trialed in 1941; boundaries changed for 1951 onwards

Canadian Census Analyser - via UM Libraries Databases A-Z list
- Census tract data back to 1961
1951 & 1941 census tract data available only in PDF format, via our Statistics Subject Guide
- Scroll about halfway - Census Publications Digitized - Winnipeg Census Tracts