CANADA’S CENSUS

Southland Times, Issue 21428, 24 June 1931, Page 8

CANADA’S CENSUS

EXTENSION OF INQUIRY. AN ECONOMIC SURVEY. Ottawa, May 15. With completion of the seventh decennial census of Canada which commenced June 1 there was made available for the experts 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. The census itself is expected to show a population of about 11,000,000 persons, but that is the simplest item in the entire procedure. Information sought is more complete than ever before, and on the farm schedule alone there were 254 questions. Out of the answers collected by 15,000 enumerators there will be available, for instance, the extent of co-operative trading in the past year, the actual extent of unemployment and its cause and average duration as of June 1, the number of radio receivers in the Dominion and the number of farm houses with bath rooms and running water. Each adult was asked whether he or she was employed on the census date; if not, the length and cause of such unemployment. Statistics have been collected on a huge scale concerning hospitals, asylums, reformatories and children’s home, 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 the census enumerators will be supplemented by special schedules which go into great detail.