Find Statistics Canada open data
Jeremy Buhler
Data Librarian, UBC Library Research Commons
jeremy.buhler@ubc.ca
Learning objectives
- Understand what's available
- Know where to find it
- Learn where to get help
Participants window
To annotate in a Zoom presentation
Never used the command line
Use the command line a lot
About Statistics Canada
Serving Canada with high-quality statistical information that matters
"Statistics Canada produces statistics that help Canadians better understand their country - its population, resources, economy, society and culture."
Statistics Canada Open Licence
https://statcan.gc.ca/reference/licence
- use
- reproduce
- publish
- freely distribute
- sell
- information
- value-added products
Statistics
- summary (counts, averages, etc.)
- easier to absorb
- not very flexible
Underlying data can answer follow-up questions
How does that differ by province? By age group?
Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs)
Public data modified to protect respondent privacy
- Some variables suppressed
- Some variables aggregated
- May only be a sample of responses
Where is this stuff?
Statistics Canada Data search https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/type/data
Abacus Open Data collection https://abacus.library.ubc.ca
Selected PUMFs in Abacus
- Census of Canada
- Labour Force Survey
- General Social Survey
- Canadian Community Health Survey
- COVID-19 Crowdsourcing series
Additional support
Data analysis tools and methods
Online workshops https://researchcommons.library.ubc.ca/workshops
Consultations https://researchcommons.library.ubc.ca/consultation-requests
General questions
Jeremy Buhler, Data Librarian, jeremy.buhler@ubc.ca