More information on Economic family type

Censuses:

2006, 2001, 1996, 1991, 1986, 1981,¹ 1976, 1971²

Reported for:

Economic families in private households

Question numbers:

Derived variable: Questions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. (The question on Common-law status – Question 5 in 2006 – was first asked in the 1991 Census.) In addition to the information used to determine families, this concept uses responses to Question H1.

Responses:

Not applicable

Remarks:

Due to changes in the questionnaire design and data capture for Question H1, the method of identifying the primary household maintainer in the 2006, 2001 and 1996 Censuses differs slightly from that of 1991. These changes may affect families and households where two or more persons contribute towards shelter expenses. As a result, the characteristics of the primary maintaining families may not be strictly comparable to those released in the 1991 Census.

See also 'Remarks' under Census family type.

A major conceptual modification was introduced for the Household maintainer(s) variable for the 1991 Census: for the first time, respondents in private households were able to identify more than one person as being responsible for the shelter expenses.

Certain family households will not have a primary maintaining family, for example, when the primary household maintainer is not in an economic family, or resides elsewhere. Accordingly, any economic family in such a household will be classified as an other maintaining or non-maintaining economic family.

In previous censuses, the primary economic family was defined as the economic family of the head of the household. While we anticipate that, in the majority of cases, the person responsible for household payments will also be considered as the household reference person (Person 1), this will not always be the case.

1. In 1981, the criterion for determining family type was changed. A new question was added to the census questionnaire to determine a person responsible for paying the rent, or mortgage, or taxes, or electricity, and was used to identify primary and secondary economic families. For 1986, this criterion was maintained.
2. In 1971, published family statistics included families living in private households (including those enumerated outside Canada) and all collective households.