CANADA'S CENSUS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 142, 18 June 1931, Page 6

CANADA'S CENSUS

BATTERY OF QUESTIONS

A GREAT COMPILATION

With the completion of the seventh docennial Census of Canada, which commenced on Ist June, there was jhade available for the exports-of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics a vast mass of material ' out of ' which 'they -will' evolve many interesting tables and computations during ensuing months. Tho Census itself is expected to show a population of about 11,000,000 persons, but that is the simplest item in the procedure. Information sought ia more complete than "ever before, and on the farm schedule alone there wcro 254 questions.

Out of tho answers collected by 15,000 enumerators there will be available, for instance, - the extent of cooperative trading in . tho past year, the actual extent of unemployment, arid its cause and average duration, the tmmbor of radio receivers in the Dpminion, and the number of farm houses with bathrooms and running water. Each adult was asked whether he or sho was employed on the Census date; if. not, tho length and cause of such unemployment.

Statistics have been collected on. a huge scale concerning hospitals, -. asylums, reformatories, . and., children's homes, intended to assist social welfare workers and Government agencies in dealing with the problems'of the ill and unfortunate. There is included also the first Dominion-wide gathering of data covering -wholesale and retail business, this in response to a general demand for a comprehensive picture of commodity distribution. Basic information taken by tho Census enumerators will be supplemented by special schedues which go into great detail.