March 1961 — VOL. 42, No. 2 —
Another Census Year
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This is a significant census. It comes just six years before
Canada's one hundredth anniversary of Confederation. It will
be the biggest nose—counting operation in our history.
It will provide information to guide Parliament in its welfare
plans, manufacturers in their production plans and construction
industries in their building of houses.
The census is a tool used in demography - a branch of the
social sciences which deals with the past, present and probable
future of the population. It considers not only total number
but age and sex composition, occupation, mobility, and other
measurable characteristics.
Practically every statistic you can think of is grist for
the Census Bureau electronic brain. You will be asked 26 questions
about the people in your family, reproduced in this Monthly
Letter by courtesy of Mr. O. A. Lemieux, Director, Census
Division, Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Another sheet of
28 questions dealing with housing may fall to your lot if
your household happens to have a number on the census—taker's
roll ending in "3" or "8". A third form, to be filled in confidentially
by everyone in these households who is 15 years of age or
over, inquires into salary, investment income, and so forth.
Finding all the people
A question frequently asked, because the task of taking
the census seems to be so vast, is: "Are people missed by
the census?" The answer is "yes" - but not so many in Canada,
we hope, as in the 1960 United States census, when 323,654
people were mislaid in New York City. The city voted $10,000
to make its own count in an effort to save the $1 ½ million
it stands to lose in charitable contributions from the State
government because of these people the census—taker did
not find.
Everywhere in the world taking the census poses difficult
problems, demanding imaginative approaches as well as complex
administrative and technical operation. The United Nations
Food and Agricultural Organization census—takers at Hong
Kong had to find a way of counting the many families who live
in fishing boats, never tying up in the same place two nights
running. In Borneo the United Nations people found that many
families moved from forest to plain and back again, depending
on the season: they had to find out who was going to be where,
when and why.
In Canada, the Census Division has worked out effective
means for ferreting out even the country's hardest—to—find
citizens. Hotel and motel proprietors, for example, co—operate
in putting travellers in touch with the census—taker.
The Defense Department helps in counting members of the Armed
Services.
It doesn't matter where a person lives, the censustakers
are charged with finding him for the record - in palatial
apartment, barn loft, hobo jungle, abandoned lighthouse or
converted chicken house.
Who uses census figures?
All this may seem to some people to be making a great fuss
about something of only academic interest. But it is not so.
The resulting figures are vitally important to government,
industry and social workers. The questions must be limited
in number, so as to make the taking of the census practicable,
but they are so well designed that the answers add up to a
broad, accurate and useful picture of the Canadian scene.
Five minutes' thought will reveal the usefulness to thousands
of people and organizations of information about how many
families have low incomes and how many have high incomes;
whether these families live on farms or in cities; how large
the families are; how old the head of the family is; whether
he is employed; what his education is; whether the dwelling
is rented or owned and whether it is in good condition or
needs sprucing up. There are special questions to be asked
of farm operators, dealing with crops, irrigation, condition
of the land, farm machinery, livestock, forest products, dairy
products, and so on.
Whether people live in an urban or a rural area profoundly
affects the way they live, their social attitudes and family
patterns, and to some extent their diseases and causes of
death. Comparison of this census with those of preceding years
will give a picture of changing social conditions, innovations
in living habits, and the rise in living standards.
The end result of the census will be published in bulletin
form as speedily as possible by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics.
The reports may then be published in bound volumes, of which
there were nine after the 1951 census, covering population,
housing, labour force, wage—earners, agriculture, wholesale
and retail distribution.
These detailed reports provide information for the study
of markets; they guide manufacturers and distributors in forming
policy regarding advertising and selling; they give facts
indispensable to social welfare, public health, education
and public utilities.
It may be seen, then, that the work of the Census Division
is one of the most frequently and widely used pieces of government
machinery, though it may not make much noise in the ten years
between the taking of the census.
There are other reasons for taking the census. In fact,
the original legal reason was to determine representation
in the House of Commons. Under the British North America Act
of 1867 it was provided that the first rearrangement of seats
in the House should be made on completion of the Census of
1871, a similar readjustment to follow every subsequent decennial
census.
This national stocktaking is useful in determining: provincial
subsidy payments, school grants, and other forms of public
expenditure where amounts are paid on a per capita basis.
The figures give the national,: provincial, and local governments
a firm statistical base upon which to judge the need and effect
of legislation dealing with economic and social matters. How
else: than by a count of people by ages and marital status
could any public body estimate the costs of social security
measures such as family allowances and old age pensions? How
else could school vocational counsellors determine the advice
to be given graduates than by the statistics of employment
in various occupations?
Counting heads is not new
All this has been about the Canadian Census, but taking
the census is not a new thing. The more advanced countries
can afford to compile detailed statistics, but in the kingdom
of Mari, said to have been the tenth city to be founded after
the Great Flood, a census of the people was not uncommon as
a basis for taxation and enlistment for military service.
Records unearthed by archaeologists a few years ago show that
the proceedings, which lasted for several days, were enlivened
by a government issue of free bread and beer.
The honour of taking the first census in the modern meaning
of the term belongs to Canada. It was in 1666 that Jean Talon,
the Intendant of New France, took an official census of the
colony to measure the increase in population that had taken
place since the founding of Quebec by Champlain in 1608. Talon's
enumeration, recording a total of 3,215 persons, included
the name, age, sex, marital status and occupation of every
person. The record says that the great Intendant himself carried
out a considerable part of the enumeration, "visiting from
door to door all the habitations of Mont Réal, Trois
Rivières, Cap—de—la—Madeleine, and all
places above Quebec."
Canada's population
In spite of the fact that our population has progressed
from 3,215 to more than 18 million in less than three hundred
years, many people in Canada seem to have an inferiority feeling
about population.
In truth, the population history of Canada from that first
census of 1666 reveals an outstanding rate of population growth.
Every decade contributed to this growth, but three stand out
particularly. In 1901 to 1911, our population increased by
34.2 per cent; in 1911 to 1921, despite war and the influenza
epidemic, our population increased by 21.9 per cent; and in
1941 to 1951 our population increased 18.6 per cent - or,
if you add Newfoundland, which joined the other provinces
in 1949, 21.8 per cent.
Canada's rate of natural increase - that is, the excess
of births over deaths - is among the highest in the world.
It exceeds that of other western industrial countries - in
1958 our rate was 19.7 per 1,000 population compared with
14.8 for the United States and 4.7 for England and Wales.
In every year since 1951 our rate has exceeded nineteen per
1,000 population.
Births in Canada averaged 446,226 per year from 1952 to
1959 inclusive. In those eight years a baby was born every
70½ seconds.
The Royal Commission on Canada's Economic Prospects estimated
that in 1980, just twenty years ahead, Canada's population
will total 27 million, an increase over 1955 of 70 per cent.
Meantime, here we are at the tenth decennial census of Canada.
To make the census—taker's task easier, we give, on the
next two pages, the questions he will ask. You have time,
between now and June 1st, to look them over so as to have
the answers in mind.
Published by RBC Financial Group. All editions from the RBC
Letter collection are available on our web site at www.rbc.com/responsibility/letter.
Our e-mail address is: rbcletter@rbc.com.
Publié aussi en francais.
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