The global non-response rate (GNR) is a weighted measure of survey non-response, calculated based on the number of households that did not respond to the survey and the number of questions that respondents left out. The GNR can be used as an indicator of data quality, with lower values indicating more accurate data. Geographies with a GNR of higher than 50% were suppressed by Statistics Canada due to concerns about data accuracy. If a geography has a GNR of 0, it means that there was a response from all households surveyed, not necessarily that the data is representative of all households in the geography.

Figures may not add to total due to random rounding.

^a The number of persons per room variable is the number of total rooms in the dwelling divided by the number of people.

^b A household is said to be living in suitable conditions if it has enough bedrooms for the size and composition of the household (as calculated by the National Occupancy Standard - NOS).

National Household Survey (NHS)

The National Household Survey is the replacement for Statistics Canada's long form census. The survey was given to about 4.5 million households in Canada (about 30% of households), and asked questions regarding Aboriginal peoples, immigration, ethnocultural diversity, education, labour, mobility, migration, income and housing. 

Unlike the former long form census survey the NHS is not mandatory, which could result in non-response bias being introduced into the survey.Statistics Canada has employed several techniques to minimize this bias, but it should still be taken into account when interpreting this data.

Non-Response Bias

Non-response bias occours when those who respond to a survey have a different set of characteristics than those who do not respond. For example, if those with lower education levels are less likely to fill out the census form, it may artificially inflate the education level of the population.

Global Non-Response Rate

The global non-response rate (GNR) is a weighted measure of survey non-response, calculated based on the number of households that did not respond to the survey and the number of questions that respondents left out. The GNR can be used as an indicator of data quality, with lower values indicating more accurate data. 

Geographies with a GNR of higher than 50% were suppressed by Statistics Canada due to concerns about data accuracy. If a geography has a GNR of 0, it means that there was a response from all households surveyed, not necessarily that the data is representative of all households in the geography.

NHS Suppression Standards

• Suppress all data for a community if the Global non-reponse rate is greater than 50%.
• Suppress income data if the population of the area is less than 250, or if there are less than 40 private households.
• Cell values greater than 10 are randomly rounded to a multiple of 5. Values less than 10 are rounded to either 0 or 10.
• Some data may have been suppressed due to data quality or privacy concerns.

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