Census data are also leveraged to develop socioeconomic status indicators in support of analysis of various impacts on education achievement and outcomes.
[3] At a sub-national level, two provinces (Alberta and Saskatchewan) and two territories (Nunavut and Yukon) have legislation that allows local governments to conduct their own municipal censuses.
[14] By this time, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and British Columbia were part of Canada and included in the national census, as was the Northwest Territories.
Beginning in 1906, the Prairie provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan began to take separate censuses of population and agriculture every five years to monitor growth in the West.
Census returns taken after 1926 are in the custody of Statistics Canada and disclosure of personal information from these records is not permitted.
Statistics Canada has implemented stringent procedures to protect the confidentiality of census information per the Statistics Act, such as requiring employees be sworn to secrecy when they are hired, and limiting access to personal and confidential information to those with a need to know to complete their work.
[18] Questionnaires completed online are protected through a number of measures, including a secure login process and encryption between the user's browser and Statistics Canada's servers.
The Census of Population Program enables the production and publication of many free resources to the public, including, but not limited to, data products, reference materials, geographical information and data visualization tools released within two years after a census is conducted.
[citation needed] • 1666 to 1867 – Numerous censuses were taken at irregular intervals in the colonies of France and Britain that became parts of Canada.
The census enumerated the population of the four original provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario).
[citation needed] • 1891 – The population was prepared for the census enumerator's visit through announcements in newspapers and from pulpits.
[citation needed] • 1906 – Beginning in 1906, the federal government took separate census of population and agriculture in the three prairie provinces of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan every five years to monitor the growth of the West.
[citation needed] • 1931 – Even though compilation and tabulation for the 1931 census were still carried out with mechanical equipment, a new sorter-tabulator developed by an employee of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics made production 50 times faster by allowing a whole data card to be read at once, rather than one column at a time.
[citation needed] • 1941 – Sample information was collected for the first time, meaning that 1 in 10 households were asked additional content about their dwelling (type, number of rooms, cooking fuel used, etc.).
[22] The 1951 census used “mark-sense.” This technology allowed punch cards to be generated, greatly reducing processing time and costs.
With the exception of Indigenous reserves and remote areas where canvassing was deemed necessary due to logistical reasons and other limitations, census questionnaires and completion instructions were dropped off at private homes and respondents were asked to complete their own questionnaires.
In population centres of 10,000 people or more, respondents were asked to mail their completed questionnaires back in a pre-addressed envelope.
[citation needed] • 1991 – All respondents in self-enumeration areas (over 98% of the population) were asked to return their completed census questionnaires by mail.
This was also the first time people were asked if they agreed to have their personal information released in 92 years for the purposes of research and education.