Introduction
The Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP) aims to provide detailed insights on residential properties in Canada and their owners. However, certain estimates are subject to limitations or may not be available for some jurisdictions or variable types because of differences in data sources, regional coverage and processing steps.
The purpose of this document is to help the reader interpret and use data from the CHSP. It outlines key data quality considerations and specific limitations affecting the availability and comparability of estimates across some domains.
To consult changes that are specific to a given reference year, please refer to the Summary of changes - Surveys and statistical programs - Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP).
Data processing
- Random rounding is applied to all raw counts to protect the confidentiality of owners in the totals. Totals and subtotals may not equal the sum of components.
- Percentages are calculated from rounded counts.
- Averages and medians are calculated using only non-missing, non-null, and values greater than zero for the variables of interest (for example, assessment value, total living area and total income).
- Assessment value per square foot refers to the assessment value of a property divided by its total living area.
- Some property or owner characteristics are in the "unspecified" category either because the corresponding information was not received from the data provider or because there is no identifiable link connecting the property to the owner information. Therefore, users must take this limitation into account when interpreting the data.
- Previous reference period estimates are subject to revision.
- Each year, geocoding is updated based on the best available location information, which may result in slight variations in the counts of census subdivisions from one year to the next.
Universe of property tables
The following property tables (46-10-0093, 46-10-0094, 46-10-0095) are restricted to residential properties in Canada. The geographic location of a property is determined by its physical address. Mixed-use properties (e.g., residential and commercial) are included, but the property characteristics reported in the tables reflect only the residential portion of mixed-use properties. The universe covers residential properties across Canada. However, it does not cover residential properties located on reserves or collective dwellings. It also excludes commercial, industrial, and institutional properties.
Universe of owner tables
The following owners tables (46-10-0096, 46-10-0097, 46-10-0098) are restricted to resident owners who are persons occupying their residential property. An owner's geographic location is determined by the location of the occupied property.
In the case of Nunavut, where information on owner-occupied properties is unavailable, the universe includes all resident owners who are persons without restrictions on owner-occupancy. For owners with multiple properties, the geographic location and property characteristics are based on the residential property with the highest assessment value.
Universe of buyer table
The following buyers table (46-10-0099) is restricted to resident buyers who are persons who filed their T1 tax return form in the previous year and purchased a property in a market sale.
Data availability and limitations
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Estimates are not available at the provincial level and for the category "outside of census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations (CAs)."
- Estimates by property type are available only for the census subdivision of St. John's.
Prince Edward Island
- Estimates of total living area and assessment value per square foot are not available.
New Brunswick
- Estimates of total living area and assessment value per square foot for condominium apartments are not available.
- The "total, all property types" category excludes condominium apartments; therefore, users should consider this limitation when interpreting estimates of total living area and assessment value per square foot for this group.
Manitoba
- Estimates by property use of residential property are suppressed in many areas due to lower linkage quality.
- The estimate of the number of owner-occupied residential property is underestimated due to the quality of the linkage.
Saskatchewan
- Provincial estimates exclude the census subdivision of Prince Albert.
- Owner-related variables are not available because of missing owners' information.
Alberta
- Estimates by property use and residency status of residential property are suppressed due to low data quality.
- The number of resident owners who are persons occupying a residential property, which represent the universe of the owner tables, is underestimated due to the low linkage quality. Therefore, the number of owners should be interpreted with caution.
Yukon
- Estimates by property use and residency status of residential property are available only for the census subdivision (CSD) of Whitehorse.
- The number of resident owners who are persons occupying a residential property, which represent the universe of the owner tables, is underestimated due to the low linkage quality outside the CSD of Whitehorse. Therefore, the number of owners outside this CSD should be interpreted with caution.
Northwest Territories
- Data are available only for the CA of Yellowknife.
- Estimates by property type and period of construction are not available.
- Estimates of total living area and assessment value per square foot are not available.
Nunavut
- Estimates by property type, period of construction and property use are not available.
- Estimates of total living area and assessment value per square foot are not available.
Variable-specific limitations
Property use of residential property
- The property use indicator is suppressed outside CMAs and CAs due to low linkage quality. It may also be removed in certain regions where its reliability has been deemed insufficient.
- For the most recent period of construction, the property use indicator is less precise. Consequently, these estimates should be used with caution.
Owner-occupancy
- The quality of the linkage is unreliable outside CMAs and CAs, leading to an underestimation of the number of resident owners who are persons occupying a residential property, which represents the universe of the owner tables (except for Nunavut). Therefore, Census Subdivisions (CSDs) located outside CMAs and CAs are not included in the owner tables. Although aggregate estimates for the category "outside of census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and census agglomerations (CAs)" are still provided, the number of owners in this category should be interpreted with caution.
Assessment value
- Because provinces and territories have varying assessment periods and assessment roll durations from one region to another, it is not possible to make precise comparisons between the assessment values of properties located in different provinces or territories. To obtain the reference years for property assessment values, please refer to the document linked on the CHSP web page: Reference years of the property stock and assessment values, by province and territory.
Number of residential properties owned
- The number of properties owned by the property owner is limited to residential properties that are within a given province.
Composite quality indicator
The composite quality indicators (CQI) combine multiple individual quality indicators (QIs) representing the quality of various CHSP data processing steps (for example, coding, geocoding, linkage, imputation). The CQIs are available for certain tables, such as the following:
Table 46-10-0093-01 Residential properties by characteristics, property use and ownership type
Table 46-10-0094-01 Residential properties by characteristics and residency status.
The CQI letter grades are defined as follows:
A – Excellent: All domain variables and the variable of interest are of excellent quality.
B – Very good: All domain variables and the variable of interest are of very good to excellent quality.
C – Good: The quality of some of the domain variables or the variable of interest is considered good, while all the other variables are of very good to excellent quality.
D – Acceptable: The quality of some of the domain variables or the variable of interest is considered acceptable, while all the other variables are of good to excellent quality.
E – Use with caution: The quality of several domain variables or the variable of interest is considered poor.
F – Too unreliable to be published