How to access National Population Health Survey (NPHS) data

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On-site access

Research Data Centres Program

Research Data Centres provide researchers with approved projects access to the microdata from the NPHS. The centres, which also house microdata from other population and household surveys conducted by Statistics Canada, are situated in secure university settings across the country.

Data Liberation Initiative (DLI)

As part of Statistics Canada's learning resources, the Data Liberation Initiative provides a wide range of data and metadata to participating post-secondary educational institutions, allowing their faculty and students unlimited access to numerous Statistics Canada public use microdata files (PUMFs), databases and geographic files. The cross-sectional PUMFs that were produced from each of the first three cycles of the NPHS are part of the DLI collection.

Off-site access

Remote access

In some instances where access to Research Data Centres is not feasible and the public use microdata files do not provide enough information for their project, researchers can apply for remote access to the NPHS data sets. Once their project is approved, researchers are provided with synthetic data from which they develop and test their computer programs (in SAS or SPSS), and then transmit them to the Health Statistics Division's Data Access and Information Services (DAIS) via a dedicated e-mail address. The programs are run on the secure data servers by DAIS staff, who also vet the outputs for disclosure issues, and return the vetted outputs to the user via e-mail. Remote access to the NPHS data is offered free of charge, but is restricted to projects with demonstrated needs. For more information on remote access to the NPHS, contact the DAIS staff at nphs-ensp@statcan.gc.ca.

Custom tabulations

Custom tabulations based on the NPHS cross-sectional data are also available on a cost recovery basis. No custom tabulation is produced with the NPHS longitudinal data; please refer to other access modes. For more information, contact the Health Statistics Division's Data Access and Information Services at hd-ds@statcan.gc.ca.