Statistics Canada
www.statcan.gc.ca
Common menu bar links
Households and the Environment Survey
Archived Content
Information identified as archived on the Web is for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It has not been altered or updated after the date of archiving. Web pages that are archived on the Web are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, you can request alternate formats on the "Contact Us" page.
Initial results are now available from the 2006 Households and the Environment Survey, which measured the environmental practices and behaviours of Canadians.
The survey, conducted in February, March and April 2006, covered 30,000 households. It was the first such survey since 1994.
Seven tables containing provincial-level data from the survey are available today. They are being released as background to the second report of the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators, a joint project of Statistics Canada, Environment Canada and Health Canada, scheduled for release on November 23, 2006.
Topics covered by the seven tables are: Households influenced by advisories of poor air quality; ownership of household gasoline-powered equipment; usual modes of transportation used to travel to work; people travelling by motor vehicle to work; treatment of drinking water by households with municipal water supply; treatment of drinking water by households with well or other non-municipal water supply, and; households that apply chemical fertilizers or pesticides on their lawn or garden.
A full data set and analysis from the survey will be available in the spring of 2007.
Among other things, the survey found that households that used a municipal water supply as their source of drinking water were slightly more likely to treat their water, by filtering, for example, than households that drew water from a well or a surface source.
Almost 3 in 10 households in Canada (29%) applied pesticides to their lawn or garden. This figure was down only slightly from the 31% that reported doing so in 1994.
Of these pesticide users, just over half (52%) said the products were applied as part of a regular maintenance schedule. The rest said they applied the pesticides only when particular problems arose.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3881.
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods, or data quality of this release, contact the Information Officer (613-951-0297; fax: 613-951-0634; environ@statcan.gc.ca), Environment Accounts and Statistics Division.
