Census jargon: What does it mean?


Census jargon: What does it mean?

Statistics Canada mailed out a document containing a secure access code to every household in Canada in May 2011.

Photograph by: Handout , CND

The second release of data from the 2011 census is all about age and gender. This primer will explain some of the terms you will see in the stories and in the Statistics Canada documents on their website (www.statcan.gc.ca).

Province/territory: The primary legal, administrative and political divisions within Canada. There are 10 provinces and three territories.

Census division: These are artificial groupings created by Statistics Canada and the provinces to divide each province. They tend to be more stable and therefore more amenable to comparisons over time and with each other. As of last November there were 293 census divisions in Canada. In some provinces, if there is a regional government in the area, the census division boundaries mirror those boundaries.

Census subdivision: This is a municipality or a First Nations reserve regardless of size. It has clear legal boundaries, and a government. This census will reflect municipal boundaries that were in place as of January 2011. Examples include the village of Perth-Andover, N.B., the city of Victoria, B.C., and Pelican Narrows 184B Indian Reserve in Saskatchewan.

Census agglomeration: This encompasses a city or cities integrated around a core. A CA has a population of at least 10,000 but no more than 100,000. This measure is not necessarily based on municipal boundaries. Statistics Canada often uses commuting traffic flows to identify a core. Examples include Bay Roberts, N.L., and Canmore, Alta.

Census Metropolitan Area: These are groupings of several municipalities integrated around an urban core of at least 50,000 people. To be a CMA a region needs at least 100,000 population. There are 33 CMAs in Canada such as Vancouver and Saint John. CMAs can cross provincial boundaries such as Ottawa-Gatineau.

Baby boomer: A baby boom is defined as a temporary, marked increase in the birthrate and most often refers to the period immediately following the Second World War. A Canadian baby boomer was born between 1946 and 1965. The Canadian Encyclopedia says an extra 1.5 million people were born during that period in Canada.

Baby buster: These were the Canadians born immediately after the baby boom, anywhere from 1966 to the mid 1970s. Thanks to author Douglas Coupland this group was rebranded "Generation X," after his 1991 novel of the same name. Statistics Canada defines this group very narrowly as those born from 1966 to 1971.

Children of the baby boomers: Canadians born between 1972 and 1992.

Generation Z: People 18 years old and under. This group is sometimes called the "Internet Generation" because they grew up with computers and the Internet.

Generation Y: This is another definition for those born after the baby busters from the early 1980s until the late 1990s, and so overlaps both "Children of the baby boomers" and "Generation Z" This group is sometimes called "echo boomers," "millennials" or "Generation Next."

Census form


Photograph by: Handout, CND




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