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Searching for StatisticsWhy can’t we find the data we need? Where should we even start?
So Many Obstacles!
Some very common challenges:
Varied producers of data
Data versus statistics
Formats
Geography
Does it even exist?
Confidentiality
Even more common challenges:
Costs
Varied sources of data
Historical Data and Longitudinal Data
Statistics Canada’s amazing maze
Bonus Workflow!!!
SO MANY PRODUCERS OF STATISTICS!!!
WHO? WHO? WHO?
- Governments: municipal, provincial, national.
- Associations and non-profit organizations: local, national, international.
- Researchers: published statistics, un-published datasets.
- For profit organizations: think-tanks, analysts, businesses.
- Compilers: database providers, almanachs.
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• Mismatch between users and data or statistics.
Potential mismatch
Beginners Experts
Statistics Data
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DATA FORMATS Many kinds of formats:
Software: SPSS, Stata, Excel, etc.
File extensions: CSV, XML, TAB, SPS, DAT, XLSX
Geospatial data.
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Geography
• Compare similar levels of geography for counts, but you can get away with percentages to compare different levels of geography.
• Statistic Canada’s geographical hierarchy is used by a LOT of Canadian sources.
• A same city might be available at many different geographical levels.
Geography
Hierarchy of standard geographic units for dissemination, 2011 Census
Some geography resources Clicking on provinces in the census profile.
Clicking around the Standard Geographical Classification.
GeoSuite
The census geography webpage.
Some geography resources Clicking on provinces in the census profile.
Clicking around the Standard Geographical Classification.
GeoSuite
The census geography webpage.
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Weekly amount of ice cream purchased for children aged 12 to 14 in Nunavut?
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Redacted statistics???
Data is suppressed in
smaller geographies
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Alphabet Soup: Which Resource for Accessing DLI Data? Beyond 20/20 Web Server? Cansim Multidimensional? Census
Analyzer? Chass? DLI FTP server? DLI restricted web site? Equinox? ICPSR? IVT Crepuq? Nesstar?
<odesi>? SDA? RDC? Peter Webster spells it out!
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Some aspects that might have changed over time:
Geographic boundaries.
Confidentiality restrictions.
Data collection (questions asked, answers collected, etc.)
Older surveys might be only available in print, be improperly documented, be hard to find/discover/search, or have coding issues.
Statistic Canada’s longitudinal surveys are typically only available through the RDCs : harder to access.
Longitudinal surveys typically lose a portion of respondents over time.
Historical DataLongitudinal Data
Longitudinal survey?A same respondent is followed for a period of time.
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Statistic Canada’s Amazing Maze!
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SUGGESTED WORKFLOW
• Quickly check sources that are already familiar to you.
• Become familiar with the Canadian census, the National Household Survey, and a few Stat Can surveys in your discipline.
• Become familiar with your local data portal and quickly check relevant links. If possible, do a variable search in your data discovery tool.
• Search for your question in Google and explore the results.
• When searching for Canadian data, use Google results to navigate to relevant branches of government, to the relevant Departments and/or to the relevant Stat Can surveys.
• If searching for Canadian data, look at tables and sources of information in Stat Can’s subject portal.
• Ask your data librarian for help…if you are the data librarian, ask the DLI email list for help.
Searching Google
AROUND(#) to find words that are close to each other.
Site:adresse of website or domain to search in a specific web site or domain.
-word to search pages that don’t have a specific word in their results.
Don’t forget to check the sources of your findings!
QUESTIONS???
