Selected Statistical Sources

Our Selected Statistical Sources handout (PDF) presents some of the most useful sources of Canadian statistics available online, via DLI and other programs. The sources listed include both microdata and aggregated data.

What is the DLI?

The Data Liberation Initiative is a Statistics Canada program established in cooperation with various academic organizations, through which students, faculty and staff of Canadian universities get enhanced access to specialized electronic data, especially microdata. For more information on the DLI program and a list of available products, see the DLI official website.

What kind of data is available through the DLI?

There are two forms of numeric data: aggregate data and microdata (raw data). For a definition of these terms, see the DLI Survival Guide. Although some versions of the data may already have been published in print publications and/or on Statistics Canada's Web site, sometimes with analysis, the DLI sources provide microdata so that researchers can perform their own tabulations or analysis.

Aggregate data is provided in formats such as Beyond 20/20, Excel, and other formats which allow the display and manipulation of data into new tables.

Microdata is provided in SPSS, SAS or other database-compatible formats for original statistical analysis. Knowledge of statistical techniques is necessary to access and manipulate the data.

The DLI also provides geographic data files in GIS format such as ArcReader and MapInfo.

DLI products complement the standard statistics available through Statistics Canada's regular channels.

How do I access DLI data?

Through the Web

Special consortium agreements with other institutions have made it possible for Concordia faculty, students and staff to access much of the DLI data through the Web, remotely, through common Web interfaces.

Aggregate data:

• CANSIM through:
  • Statistics Canada's CANSIM website (Updated daily)
  • CHASS (Updated daily, some sophisticated options)
• Canadian Census Analyser (also includes Census microdata files, and includes census back to 1971)
• CREPUQ's Statistical and Geographic Data page: (Detailed tables usually not available from Statistics Canada's website or CANSIM)

Microdata

• EQUINOX -- Includes Public Use Microdata Files (PUMF) for the Census and most Statistics Canada's surveys as well as aggregate data from multiple sources).*If you encounter difficulties connecting to Equinox, please see the On request section below and/or contact the DLI Team.
• See also these instruction slides (PDF) for acccessing data sets from EQUINOX and opening them in SPSS.
  

Geospatial data

• Canadian Census Geographic Files (CREPUQ's website)
• Equinox (Choose "Geospatial" from the menu)
  Note: more geospatial files are available from this page

On request (DLI website: FTP and Web collection)

Some data can only be obtained on request, by the DLI Team.

For more information, see the DLI web site:

A list of Surveys for a complete list of DLI products

Browse the DLI collection

List of upcoming product releases

In the library only, on CD-ROM

Some data products are produced on CD-ROM and are installed on public workstations in the library. See Numeric Databases and Government Publications Databases.

Other sources of statistical data

• Statistics Canada makes much of its most popular statistics freely available to the public through the Statistics Canada web site. There are many other sources of statistics. In particular, see CANSIM listed above
• ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) is the other major source of microdata. It focuses on U.S. social sciences data but also presents datasets of international and Canadian interest.
• For economic statistics, see the Economics subject page.

Contact

To request DLI products, or for more information, send an email to: dli-lib@concordia.ca

The members of the DLI team are:

Susie Breier
Olivier Charbonneau
Rajiv Johal
Michelle Lake