> Kwantlen Polytechnic University > Library – Coast Capital Savings Library > Subject Guides > Business & Economic Statistics > CANSIM

Research

• Library Catalogue
• Research Databases
• Journal Titles
• Subject Guides
• Help with Research
• Citation Styles
• Library Instruction

Services

• Book Study Rooms
• Audiovisual Services
• Ask A Librarian
• Borrowing & Fines
• Interlibrary Loans
• My Library Account
• Requests
• Renewals
• Library Feedback
• Site Map

CANSIM

Sorry, this guide has moved.
 No changes will be made to the old guide after February 21, 2012. 
Please visit our new CANSIM guide instead. 

---

CANSIM is an abbreviation for Canadian Socioeconomic Information Management system. It is a searchable collection of tables from Statistics Canada (Statcan). Essentially it is Statcan's main public source of statistics outside of the Census.

Although is best known for conducting the Census of Population every five years, Statcan also conducts over 150 surveys annually and it continually gathers data from many administrative sources such as income tax returns and the business register. After the results have been carefully screened to ensure confidentiality, data from many (but not all) of these sources may be released into the CANSIM collection. Since the sources are ongoing -- longitudinal -- CANSIM provides a way to track changes over time.

The many flavours of CANSIM:

Most of Statistics Canada's tables are stored in its CANSIM collection. As of February 1, 2012, these are freely available to the public from the Statistics Canada website.

CANSIM tables are available in several ways, with varying levels of detail, currency, and ease of use. Here's a chart to help you decide which version of CANSIM to use:

 

Public-Use Microdata Files (PUMF's):

Sometimes, Statcan makes 'raw' data files available to DLI member institutions for educational purposes. These are called Public-Use Microdata Files, or PUMF's. Users can do more complex analyses and cross-tabulations of data using these PUMF's than is possible with the pre-formatted tables. However, this requires access to -- and knowledge of -- statistical analysis software such as SPSS. The Kwantlen Library subscribes to two data services to provide web access to these PUMF's: Equinox and UT/DLS. The University of Toronto's service comes with built-in software called SDA which will do many standard statistical analyses.

A note on confidentiality:

Statistics Canada promises all of the participants in its surveys and the Census that no specific person or business will be identifiable from data that it releases. All files are carefully screened to eliminate that possibility. That means that Statcan may group results into broad categories or simply not release data. This confidentiality review also takes time, so there is often a delay between selected survey tables being available in the CANSIM collection and the release of the survey PUMF.