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More information on Mobility 1: Mobility status - Place of residence 1 year ago

Censuses:

2006 (1/5 sample), 2001 (1/5 sample), 1996 (1/5 sample), 1991 (1/5 sample)

Reported for:

Population 1 year of age and over residing in Canada, excluding institutional residents and Canadians (military and government personnel) in households outside Canada

Question number:

Derived variable: Question 23

Responses:

Not applicable

Remarks:

This variable is derived from the following response categories: Lived at the same address as now; Lived at a different address, but in the same census subdivision (CSD) as now; Lived in a different CSD in Canada (respondent provides name of CSD [municipality] and province or territory); Lived outside Canada (respondent gives name of the country).

In 1991, unlike the Mobility 5: Mobility status – Place of residence 5 years ago variable, place of residence one year ago was restricted to the provincial level. Since 1996, the geographic coverage for the place of residence one year ago was identical to that for five years ago. For further details on migration status, see Mobility 5: Mobility status – Place of residence 5 years ago and Figure 10.

Figure

Figure 10 2006 Census mobility variables

For information on the historical comparability of Mobility status – Place of residence 5 years ago from 1961 on, see Appendix I.

With respect to external migration, immigrants – persons who were residing outside Canada one year earlier, but within Canada on Census Day – are counted. This is not to be confused with 'landed immigrants'; see Immigration: Year of immigration. When external migrants report their country of residence one year ago, they report the country based on current geographic boundaries.

Emigrants – persons residing in Canada one year ago, but not on Census Day – are not counted.

Different types of internal migration are derived based on various aggregations of CSDs (e.g., to census divisions, census metropolitan areas). In-migration, out-migration, net internal migration, migration streams and origin-destination matrices can be produced from the database.

In-migration is defined as a movement into a CSD (or CSD aggregation) from elsewhere in Canada, within the 12 months prior to Census Day. Persons who made such a move are called in-migrants.

Out-migration is defined as a movement out of a CSD (or CSD aggregation) to elsewhere in Canada, within the 12 months prior to Census Day. Persons who made such a move are called out-migrants.

Net internal migration refers to the number of in-migrants into a CSD (or CSD aggregation) minus the number of out-migrants from the same CSD (or CSD aggregation), within the 12 months prior to Census Day.

Migration stream refers to a body of migrants having a common CSD (or CSD aggregation) of origin and a common CSD (or CSD aggregation) of destination.

Origin-destination matrix refers to data on migrants, cross-classified by area of origin (CSD or CSD aggregation) and area of destination (CSD or CSD aggregation) to form a matrix of streams, or a set of pairs of streams, each pair representing movement in opposite directions.

The concept of 'migrants' is defined at the CSD level. For geographic levels below the CSD, such as collection units (CUs), dissemination areas (DAs) and census tracts (CTs), the distinction between the migrant and non-migrant population refers to the corresponding CSD of the CU, DA or CT. For example, migrants within a CT are those persons who moved from a different CSD, while non-migrants are those who moved within the same CSD, although they moved in from a different CT in the same CSD or moved within the same CT.

When tabulating the usual place of residence one year ago by current place of residence, all geographic areas reflect their 2006 boundaries, even when referred to as places of residence in 2005. This applies to all boundary changes between censuses (e.g., census metropolitan areas, census divisions and census subdivisions).

For further details, see the following Mobility 1 variables:

See also Figure 10 and the section on geography for corresponding current places (e.g., province and census division) of residence and geographic definitions.

It should be noted that data are not published for all possible mobility and migration classifications, but are available upon special request, subject to confidentiality constraints.

The reader is directed to Figure 11, where the relationship between the 2006 Census question on Place of residence 1 year ago and the Mobility status (1 year ago) conceptual framework is illustrated.