Census 2016 was officially taken on May 10th, 2016. According to Statistics Canada, the Census 2016 is the best one of the last 350 years since the first Census in year 1666. Firstly, the response rate (98.4%) of overall collection of Census 2016 is outstanding and best ever. Secondly, response rates to individual questions are also high and very uniform throughout the questionnaire. These two aspects will enable a high quality of data. Particularly at Manifold, we expect improved quality of individual variables in the Census 2016.
Canadians were very enthusiastic in participating the Census 2016. 88.8% of the households completed their long or short form questionnaire without any assistance from Statistics Canada staff. 68.3% of the households completed the questionnaire online. Both of them are the world record.
Thanks to the High rates of self-response and Internet response, both the efficiency of data collection and data quality are exceptional. Comparing with the historical Census, Statistics Canada can release the 2016 Census much faster than before. Specific release dates for data by release topic from the 2016 Census are
• February 8, 2017, for population and dwelling counts;
• May 3, 2017, for age and sex, type of dwelling;
• May 10, 2017, for Census of Agriculture;
• August 2, 2017, for language and families, households and marital status;
• September 13, 2017, for income;
• October 25, 2017, for immigration and ethnocultural diversity, housing and Aboriginal peoples; and
• November 29, 2017, for education, labour, journey to work, language of work and mobility and migration.
Likely Census 2016 will be released firstly at Census Sub-Division level and up. Data at the Dissemination Area level is normally released at a later date. At Manifold, we shall incorporate the Census 2016 into our annual data updates as soon as the data is released. Stay tuned, we are looking forward to the releases of Census 2016 and sharing the results with you.