Statistics Canada
www.statcan.gc.ca
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CANSIM User Guide for E-STAT
Search from E-STAT — Table of contents
CANSIM - Advanced Search
CANSIM - Search within results
CANSIM - Table Number Search
CANSIM - Series Number Search
Checklist and Footnotes screen
Retrieve as individual Time series
Data manipulation (Table and Time series)
About this manual
This manual is a complete guide to CANSIM in E-STAT — the authoritative Canadian socio-economic database. Easy to learn and to use, CANSIM offers you data on:
| Aboriginal peoples Agriculture Business performance and ownership Business, consumer and property services Children and youth Construction Crime and justice Culture and leisure Economics accounts Education, training and learning |
Energy Environment Ethnic diversity and immigration Families, households and housing Government Health Incomes, pensions, spending and wealth Information and communication technology International trade Labour |
Languages Manufacturing Population and demography Prices and price indexes Retail and wholesale Science and technology Seniors Society and community Transportation Travel and tourism |
More than 41 million time series covering virtually every aspect of Canadian life make CANSIM an excellent cross-curricular research tool. This dynamic database is an invaluable classroom aid for activities and projects as diverse as:
- make investment decisions
- evaluate social conditions
- conduct feasibility studies
- conduct market analyses
- forecast economic conditions
- plan programs or services
- profile demographics
This user guide walks you through each CANSIM screen and option. After reading this guide, you will know how to:
- search for data by text search, table number and series number
- browse by subject per survey number
- load, add, copy and modify data directly into your spreadsheets or databases
Help with this page
This option is available on every page of the CANSIM in E-STAT site. When you click "Help using this page", you will get context-sensitive detailed information for the active page.
Table directory
The table directory is a list of all tables in CANSIM classified by subject and table number in HTML format. You can view or print any section. To print all sections in one document, click on the hyperlink at the bottom of the page "All sections".
To access the table directly, click on the table number.
Search methods
Search for data on CANSIM using:
- E-STAT Table of contents
- Search from CANSIM
- Text Search
- Advanced Search
- Search within results
- Table Number Search
- Series Number Search
- Browse by Subject
- Browse by Survey Number
- Text Search
Search from E-STAT — Table of contents
When you search data from the E-STAT—Table of contents, there are six major topics containing various subjects.
For example, to search for data on "Electricity power statistics", you click on Energy under the heading Land and Resources.
This takes you to the next screen and lists subtopics related to Energy. To see all tables related to Electricity, you would click on Energy consumption and disposition.
Search from CANSIM
There are three search methods in CANSIM.
Type the information in the search box and click the 
button. You can use one of the following methods;
- Text Search: Enter the phrase or word(s) in the search box. Select the type of search you want to perform (the phrase, all of these words and any of these words) to perform a boolean search or have access to more options, click the "Advanced search" hyperlink.
- Table Number: Enter one or more CANSIM table numbers, separated by commas (do not use any spaces or other punctuation; the hyphen before the last four digits of a table number is optional). To retrieve related tables, use the first three digits of the table number followed by * e.g. 385*. To select a range of tables, enter the first table number followed by .. and then the last table of the range. For example 2820001..2820010 retrieves all the tables in that range.
- Series Number: Enter one or more CANSIM series/vector numbers starting with "v" numbers) separated by commas. The selected series do not all have to come from the same CANSIM table, but for most outputs, they do need to have the same frequency (periodicity). To select a range of series, enter the first series number followed by .. and then the last series number of the range. For example v1..v6 retrieves all the series in that range.
Note: All search methods, except Series number search, result in the display of one or more CANSIM tables. You are then prompted to select one table from the list displayed and proceed from there. When entering series numbers, you may include series that come from more than one CANSIM table; outputs from a list of series will always display that list as one dimension and time as a second dimension.
CANSIM - Text search
To search by keyword, type in your text in the text field and click Search.
Text Search Screen
Select the type of search you want to perform by clicking on the appropriate label:
- Exact phrase: looks for the exact string you type, including punctuation, spaces.
- All of these words: looks for tables that contain all the words you enter (functions like the Boolean operator AND).
- Any of these words: looks for tables that contain any of the words (functions like the Boolean operator OR).
Enter the phrase or word(s) you are searching for then click the button. The results of the search will be the same whether you use upper-case or lower-case letters or whether you use accents or not.
All text in a table will be searched, including table titles, dimension descriptions, and member descriptions. A member is a discrete component in a dimension (e.g., Ontario in a geography dimension, or mining in an industry dimension). All tables, both active and terminated, will be returned.
Note: Time is not a dimension, but rather one of the characteristics of a time series. You cannot search by date.
Note: Words have to be matched exactly. You can use an asterisk as a wildcard character to search for different forms of a word. For example, you might search for harvest* to find tables containing harvest, harvests, harvesting, harvested, etc.).
If you want to refine your research, click on "Search within results" button. Text search is the only method that allows you to query your initial results.
CANSIM - Advanced search
First, select the fields you wish to search, by default the top four fields are selected.
Note: It is important to understand the distinction between the following: the dimension descriptions field describes the dimension itself (e.g., geography, industry, and type of employee). The dimension member field contains the description member of each dimension (e.g., Canada, Newfoundland and Ontario for the geography dimension, or public employees and private employees for the type of employee dimension).
Secondly, indicate whether you wish to include all tables, only active tables or only terminated tables in your search. (A terminated table refers to a table that is no longer being updated.)
By default, all tables regardless of frequency will be included in the result. To filter the result by a frequency, click on the appropriate frequency radio button in the list.
Finally, enter a full Boolean query, and then click "Find tables".
You may use the words AND, OR and NOT, as well as parentheses to specify your search query. Use an asterisk for wildcard searches; for example, you might search for harvest* to find tables containing harvested, harvesting, harvests, etc.
Keep the following points in mind when you perform Boolean searches:
- Searches are not case-sensitive or accent-sensitive.
- If you prefer, you can use symbols instead of words for the operators, & for AND, | for OR and ~ for NOT.
- When you use AND between two words, both words must be found in the same field for the search to succeed. For example, say you want to search in both table titles and dimension member descriptions, and you search for Livestock AND Ontario. Although there is a table about livestock that includes Ontario as a member of the geography dimension, the search will not find it, because Livestock is found in the table title, while Ontario is found as a member of the geography dimension.
- The NOT operator has a peculiar syntax: it really stands for AND NOT. You should therefore not have it as the first word of a search, and you should also not prefix it with the word AND. For example, if you want to search for "construction excluding residential construction", the syntax is "construction NOT residential", not "construction AND NOT residential."
Note: Time is one of the characteristics of a time series: it does not have the same properties as a dimension, so it is not possible to include dates in your search criteria, but your search result can be filter by the frequency of a table.
Note: If the result of your search exceeds 50 tables, please click on the "Next" button to see the next 50 tables.
If you want to refine your research at the search results page, click on "Search within results" button at the bottom of the page. Text search is the only method that allows you to query your initial results
CANSIM - Search within results
The search within results method allows the user to perform a second query on the result on the initial search results. This method is useful if the search result contain a large number of tables.
1. Choose a type of search from the following list:
- The phrase: looks for the exact string you type including punctuation and spaces.
- All of these words: looks for tables that contain all the words you enter (functions like the Boolean AND).
- Any of these words: looks for tables that contain any of the words you enter (functions like the Boolean OR).
Note: The results of the search will be the same whether you use upper-case or lower-case letters or whether you use accents or not.
2. Choose the type of table you wish to work with:
- All tables matching search criteria (active and terminated)
- Active tables matching search criteria
- Terminated tables matching search criteria
Note: Active tables are regularly updated; terminated tables are not. By default all tables that satisfy search criteria are part of the results.
3. Choose whether search is performed within all text or table titles.
4. Enter text or phrase and click the "Find tables" button.
Note: All text in a table will be searched including table titles and dimension and item descriptions. An item is a member description component within a dimension (for example, Ontario in a geography dimension or mining in an industry dimension). Since time is not a dimension, but rather one of the characteristics of a time series, you cannot search by date.
Note: Words have to be matched exactly. You can use an asterisk as a wildcard character to search for different forms of a word. For example you might search for harvest* to find tables containing harvest, harvests, harvesting, harvested.
CANSIM – Table Number Search
To search by Table number, enter a table number in the text field and click on
Enter one or more CANSIM table numbers, separated by commas (do not use any spaces or other punctuation; the hyphen before the last four digits of a table number is optional). If you enter more than one table number, you will be prompted to select the desired table from a list; if you enter only one table number, you will be brought directly to the content selection lists for that table.
After entering your table numbers, click the button to access the search results page.
CANSIM - Series Number Search
To search by Series number, enter a series number in the text field and click on
Enter one or more CANSIM series numbers (also known as vector numbers) separated by commas. The selected series do not all have to come from the same CANSIM table, but for most outputs, they do need to have the same frequency (periodicity).
When you request several series, each series number must be entered separately separated by commas. To select a range of series, enter the first series number followed by .. and then the last series number of the range. For example v1.. v6 retrieves all the series in that range.
Clicking the button opens the confirmation page for your series list.
Browse method
There are two browse methods, by subjects or by survey. To browse the subject list, use the list "CANSIM by subject" located on the right side of the CANSIM in E-STAT home page. To browse the survey list, use the "CANSIM by survey" hyperlink located above the "CANSIM by subject" list. Both of these lists will help you narrow down the list of CANSIM tables that interest you.
CANSIM - Browse by Subject
The browse by subject method contains 30 main subjects. When you search by subject, you are presented with a listing of major subjects. This subject list consists of high-level and second-level terms.
For example, to search for "Energy" click the top-level subject heading, Energy. A list of subtopics related to Energy appears.
To see all tables related to "Energy" click on Energy consumption and disposition.
CANSIM by survey
The browse by survey method opens a page with a list of surveys. This list contains descriptions of over 450 surveys and statistical programs each identified by a unique four-digit survey number. You may sort this list by record number by clicking on the "sort by record number" button.
The Definitions, data sources and methods database contains information about the surveys and statistical programs carried out by Statistics Canada and other agencies to collect, assemble process and disseminate statistical information.
After selecting a Survey or Program from the list you may choose to either retrieve the list of CANSIM tables for that survey or program or consult the Definitions, data sources and methods for more information.
Search results
Searches most often result in more than one table. To continue, you have to select the table you wish to extract data from (by clicking on the table number). Selecting a table this way will display a screen for you to indicate which subset of the table you want.
Some table titles may be followed by one or more status designations:
Active (refers to a table that is regularly updated) or Terminated (refers to a table no longer being updated).
Example of search results:
Description
Clicking on the hyperlink Description will open a new window containing a summary description of the components of that table such as number of series and period covered for the data.
Example of summary:
Table pick lists
The table pick list screen enables you to choose the specific members you require from each dimension of the selected table. There is one scrollable pick list for each dimension in the table and you must select at least one item from each list to continue. To consult the definitions, data sources and methods click on the four-digit survey number.
If the table (or any one of its dimensions) includes footnote references, the pick list screen will include hyperlinks. One or more numeric hyperlink after the table number indicates that the footnotes are applicable to the entire table; hyperlinks on dimension titles indicate that the footnotes are only applicable to that dimension. Footnotes can reference the members of a dimension or the data points.
You may select or deselect all the members of a dimension by clicking the appropriated button. If you want to visualize the complete list of the dimension members and their footnotes, click the "View checklist and footnotes" button.
Finally, before you click "Retrieve as a table" or "Retrieve as individual time series", check the time period for which data is available, and reduce or increase this range if you wish; the response time will vary based on the length of that time period.
Note: Although CANSIM tables are usually structured to minimize sparseness, there is no guarantee that data exists for every dimension intersection or combination. It is therefore possible that even if you have selected at least one item from all the lists, you might still be told that your retrieval contains no series.
Note: If the dimension has only one item in the pick list it is automatically selected.
Note: If no dates appear in the "date" drop down boxes, no data has been loaded to this table
Tips for selecting items:
- You can select several contiguous items by clicking on the first, then holding the Shift key while clicking on the last.
- On a PC running Windows (but not on a Macintosh), you can also select contiguous items by clicking on the first and dragging until the last item wanted is selected.
- You can select non-contiguous items by holding the Control key while clicking on the second and subsequent items (on a Macintosh, hold the Command key instead of Control).
Dimension detail page
All the members (also called items) for the dimension you selected are listed here. You may use the checkboxes or item descriptions to select or deselect items. If you do so be sure to use the "Return to pick list" button and not your browser's Back button to return to the main selection screen otherwise you will erase your selection.
The two rows of small buttons above the checkmark boxes can be used to select and unselect all items at a given hierarchical level. For example in a three-level geographic dimension (Canada, Provinces, Cities), you could select all of the Provinces with a single click on the second checkmark button from the left.
Footnotes at the dimension level or for individual members are shown as small hyperlinked numbers. The actual footnote text is displayed at the very bottom of the screen after the list of items.
The "Select" all button selects all available members whether they were already selected or not. The "Deselect" all button erases all selections (even those made at the main selection screen).
Note: You can use your browser's Find feature (usually found under the Edit option in the menu bar) to locate text. This may help you identify items of interest especially in a very long list.
Checklist and Footnotes screen
The only difference between the Pick List screen and the Checklist and Footnotes screen are the footnotes. Footnotes at the dimension level or for individual members are shown as small hyperlink numbers.
Note: For this example, the screen below contains only 6 items out of the 33 items that would be selected.
Footnotes
The actual footnote text is displayed at the very bottom of the screen.
Going back now to the Subset selection screen, let's make the following selections:
You may choose Retrieve as a table or Retrieve as individual time series.
Retrieve as a table
- Produces a rectangular arrangement of text and numeric data.
- Allows only one CANSIM table to be used at a time.
Retrieve as individual time series
- Uses a time series model.
- Enables adding to a shopping basket of time series that can come from several CANSIM tables.
Retrieve as a Table
Table Output Format
You have elected to display your most recent selection as a table. You must now select an output format (to help you choose, you may wish to view examples of outputs in various formats). You also have the opportunity to change the time frame and frequency for your retrieval. You must now choose an output format from the following choices:
Screen output formats
- HTML table
- Vertical or horizontal bar graph
Note: If you are using a screen reading software, check the Enable accessibility tagging for HTML table box.
Downloadable file
- CSV file (comma separated values)
- PRN file (tab separated values)
- Other formats (Beyond 20/20 v5.2+)
Note: CSV files are produced differently whether you perform the retrieval in English or French. This is because, in French, the comma is used to indicate decimals, a different separator (a semicolon) must therefore be used. CSV files retrieved in French will parse correctly only if the Regional Settings (Windows Control Panel) are set to French.
Table output format page
The table output format page lists all screen output formats and various downloadable file formats.
If your objective is to load the data into a spreadsheet package the best choice for output format is a Comma-Separated Values file (CSV) although some of the newer spreadsheet software may also be able to correctly parse and load HTML outputs.
Once you have selected a format, click either the "Retrieve now" button if you wish to retrieve the data immediately, or use the "Manipulate data" button if you want to modify the output data by changing its frequency or performing a computation such as a percentage change.
Examples of multidimensional outputs
Here are some examples of multidimensional outputs in CANSIM:
- HTML table, time as columns
- HTML table, time as rows
- Comma-Separated Values (CSV) file for use with spreadsheet software, time as columns
- CSV file for loading a database
- Beyond 20/20 table
CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file for use with spreadsheet software, time as columns
Note: In this format, each series forms a row, and time forms columns. Although not illustrated here, an alternate format where series form columns and time forms rows is also available.
CSV file for loading a database
Note: Version 5.2 or above of the Beyond 20/20 software must be installed in order to view the output file.
Retrieve as individual Time series
Time Series Output Format
You have chosen to display the results of your last selection using time series output format. You can drop a series from the request by removing the checkmark that appears to the left of its identifier. You have the choice of the language for the textual content. You also have the opportunity to change the time frame for your retrieval. To help you choose an output click on the hyperlink "Output format" to view various formats.
You must now select one of the following output formats:
Screen output formats
- HTML, series listed individually
- HTML, table
- Plain text
- Graph
Note: If you are using a screen reading system, check the Enable accessibility tagging for HTML table box.
Downloadable file
- CSV file (comma separated values)
- PRN file (tab separated values)
- Others formats (DIF file, WK1 and others)
Note: CSV files are produced differently whether you perform the retrieval in English or French. This is because, in French, the comma is used to indicate decimals; a different separator (a semicolon) must therefore be used. CSV files retrieved in French will parse correctly only if the Regional Settings (Windows Control Panel) are set to French.
Output format page for Time series
The left column lists the available screen output formats; the right column lists various downloadable file formats.
If your objective is to load the data into a spreadsheet package the best choice for output format is a Comma-Separated Values file (CSV) or the Generic Worksheet (WK1) format although some of the newer spreadsheet software may also be able to correctly parse and load HTML outputs.
Use the "Retrieve now" button to produce output in the selected format immediately, use the "Manipulate data" button if you want to perform a frequency conversion or a computation such as a percentage change on the retrieved data.
Sample for Time series output format
Examples of two-dimensional outputs available in CANSIM:
Series listed individually
Table, time as columns
Table, time as rows
Graphic - line chart
Flat file, one observation per record
CSV (comma-separated values) file, time as columns
CSV (comma-separated values) file, time as rows
CANSIM Utility format
Note: This format also includes a bar chart option (not shown here).
Flat file, one observation per record
The flat file output is mostly intended to serve as input to a database loading program. The records contain only table number, series number, reference date and data value information.
CSV (comma-separated values) file, time as columns
This format is ideal for loading into a spreadsheet, if the number of time periods does not exceed 254.
Note: To obtain the same file, but with tabs instead of commas between the fields, use the PRN, time as columns format.
CSV (comma-separated values) file, time as rows
This format is ideal for loading into a spreadsheet, if the number of series does not exceed 254.
Note: To obtain the same file, but with tabs instead of commas between the fields, use the PRN, time as rows format.
Data manipulation (Table and Time series)
By default the frequency of output data will be left unchanged. You can convert the frequency by these choices:
Converted to:
- Annual (average or sum)
- Quarterly (average or sum)
Frequency conversion options are particularly useful, when not all selected series have the same frequency since all output formats except those that display series individually require that all series have the same periodicity. Conversion to a sum, shouldn't be performed on a rate or index.
Annual:
- Convert your annual data to a monthly or quarterly base.
Output will contain:
You can add to your data these choices:
| Table | Time series |
|---|---|
| Percent changes, period-to-period | Percent changes, period-to-period |
| Percent changes, year-to-year | Percent changes, year-to-year |
| Year-to-date sums | Year-to-date sums |
| Year-to-date average | Year-to-date average |
| Data expressed as % of first series |
Data manipulation page in table option
If you have completed your selection, click "Retrieve now" to view or download your data immediately.
Data manipulation page in time series option
If you have completed your selection, click "Retrieve now" to view or download your data immediately.
