The use of administrative records for estimating population in Canada - ARCHIVED

This paper examines the adequacy of estimates of emigrants from Canada and interprovincial migration data from the Family Allowance files and Revenue Canada tax files. The application of these data files in estimating total population for Canada, provinces and territories, was evaluated with reference to the 1986 Census counts. It was found that these two administrative files provided consistent and reasonably accurate series of data on emigration and interprovincial migration from 1981 to 1986. Consequently, the population estimates were fairly accurate. The estimate of emigrants derived from the Family Allowance file could be improved by using the ratio of adult to child emigrant rates computed from Employment and Immigration Canada’s immigration file.