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Investigating social justice issues: Types of data
Sources of data are presented here from lowest to highest level of detail. The last are for more advanced students.
| Type of resource | Technical notes | What to do? |
|---|---|---|
| Summary table | Can be exported in a spreadsheet (right click) Sometimes the margin has a further dimension (provinces, quintiles...) | Compare the different rows or columns of the table, change absolute numbers to percentages, if the same table exists for different groups (provinces, quintiles, etc) then compare those groups. |
| CANSIM table in E-STAT | You must choose at least one dimension in each box. Many output formats on the screen as well as some that can be imported into other software. | E-STAT allows you to choose which variables you want to see. This gives you flexibility to look at many angles of an issue. Results from these tables to be retrieved as a table (best when considering many variables for a given year) or retrieved as a time series (a few series over a longer period). Whatever the option chosen in E-STAT, you can see a table or you can graph the data. See instructions below. |
| Topic-based tabulation | You can see and change many dimensions at once. When you do, please click Refresh (in the table, not in your browser) to get the numbers. These tables can then be used in a spreadsheet. Use the CSV output format at the bottom of the page. | You may wish to retrieve the same table for different age groups, different genders, or for different places. Some of the tables have data for all agglomerations of more than 10,000 people, while other tables have data by province, or by Census division, a level of geography that corresponds to counties in some provinces. |
In E-STAT, on the Output specification page, select the type of graph or table you wish to have displayed and then click on the Retrieve now button. Ensure that the start and end dates for the dataset are correct.
- If you wish to display a graph within E-STAT, select one of the graph types and click on the Retrieve now button. We recommend these types: Line graph, Line graph with symbols and Scatter graph.
- If you wish to use the data in a dynamic statistical software program (e.g., Fathom), select Plain text: Table, time as rows and then click on the Retrieve now button. Highlight only the numeric data (not the legend, headings, footnotes, or references), select Copy, and then Paste in your software program.
- If you wish to use the data in a spreadsheet software program (e.g., Excel), select CSV (comma-separated values) file: Time as rows and then click on the Retrieve now button.
