Statistics Canada has released a video to say thank you to Canadians for the “best census ever.”
The federal agency reports that the response rate for the mandatory survey reinstated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals soon after taking power in November was 98.4 per cent.
The more in-depth long form version's response rate was the “best ever recorded” at 97.8 per cent, according to a press release quoting chief statistician Wayne Smith.
“Once again, thank you Canada for making this our best census since 1666,” Smith said.
The first results – population and dwelling counts -- will be made available on Feb. 8, 2017, according to the press release.
There was no mandatory census in 2011, after the Conservative government cancelled it in favour of a voluntary National Household Survey (NHS). The last mandatory census was in 2006.
The final response rate for the 2011 NHS was 77.2 per cent, which Statistics Canada noted led to an unknown amount of “non-response bias.” Non-response bias happens when certain groups are more or less likely than others to respond to a voluntary survey, causing their responses to be over- or under-counted.
For example, Statistics Canada said that based on immigration rates, there appeared to be a non-response bias in population statistics that resulted in over-estimates of those born in the Philippines and underestimates of those born in Pakistan.
