Survey on Unpaid Time, 2023

Basic respondent information (LAC)

LAC_Q01A: Please verify your address as of [current date] and update if necessary.

Address

Community name or municipality or location

Province or territory

Postal code

  1. Address outside of Canada

Demographic information (RRS)

The following questions ask for important information about the people in your household.

RRS_Q12: Including yourself, how many persons are staying at this address?

Include all persons who have their main residence at this address, even if they are temporarily away.

Note: Press the help button (?) for additional information, including who to include and who not to include.

Include as household members:

  • Persons for whom this address is the usual place of residence
  • A spouse or partner (including common-law or same sex) who usually resides at this address but may be away temporarily due to work or school
  • Members of the Canadian Forces posted to other regions but who consider this address their usual place of residence
  • Children temporarily away from home due to school or seasonal work but who consider this address as their usual place of residence and who have resided in this dwelling for a minimum of 30 days in the past 12 months
  • Children in a joint custody situation who reside at this address more than half their time
  • Children in a joint custody situation who live half the time at this address and if the child slept over in this dwelling the night before
  • Foster children currently living at this address
  • Persons temporarily residing in an institution who consider this as their usual place of residence, and who have been absent from this dwelling for less than six months
  • Landed immigrants for whom this address is their usual place of residence
  • Persons who are: applying for refugee status; attending school in Canada on student visas; or staying in Canada on work permits (and their families)
  • Persons who spend the winter months in the south (Snowbirds), but reside in this dwelling at least 6 months of the year.

Do not include as household members:

  • Persons residing in a specialized health institution for 6 months or more
  • Persons residing in a prison for 6 months or more
  • Representatives of foreign governments, and their families
  • Non-Canadians or landed immigrants living in Canada who have another “usual residence” outside of Canada
  • Foreign residents in Canada for personal or business travel.

Demographic information (RRS3)

Provide your first name, last name and age.

RRS3_Q01A: * First name

RRS3_Q01B: * Last name

RRS3_Q01C: * Age

Provide the first name, last name and age of all the people usually living at this address. 

RRS_Q12: Person [number of roster instance]

To add a person, return to question 7 and change the number of people staying at this address. An additional row will then appear in the table where you can enter this person’s information.

To remove a person, return to question 7 and change the number of people staying at this address. Review the updated list of household members in the table and make any necessary corrections.  

Note: Press the help button (?) for additional information, including who to include and who not to include.

RRS3_Q15A: * First name

RRS3_Q15B: * Last name

RRS3_Q15C: * Age

Verify that you are listed first and all of the information is correct.

If all the information is correct, then press the Next button.

To make changes, press the Previous button.

Person [number of roster instance]

First name: [RRS3_Q15A]
Last name: [RRS3_Q15B]
Age: [RRS3_Q15C]

Demographic information (MS)

MS_Q01: What is your marital status?

Is it:

  1. Married
    Help text: For Quebec residents only, select the “Married” category if your marital status is “civil union”.
  2. Living common-law
    Help text: Two people who live together as a couple but who are not legally married to each other.
  3. Never married (not living common law)
  4. Separated (not living common law)
  5. Divorced (not living common law)
  6. Widowed (not living common law)

Demographic information (RSR2)

RSR2_Q30: What is the relationship of the following [people/person] to you?

Note: Press the help button (?) for additional information.

[RRS3_Q15A] (age [RRS3_Q15C]) is:

  1. Your husband or wife
  2. Your common-law partner
  3. Your father or mother
  4. Your son or daughter (birth, adopted or step)
  5. Your brother or sister
  6. Your foster father or mother
  7. Your foster son or daughter
  8. Your grandfather or grandmother
  9. Your grandson or granddaughter
  10. Your in-law
  11. Other related
  12. Unrelated

Demographic information (AGE)

What is your date of birth?

AGE_Q01A: Year

AGE_Q01B: Month

AGE_Q01C: Day

AGE_Q05: To confirm, your age is [calculated age] [year/year/months/month]. Is that correct?

Date of birth is [month] [day], [year].

  1. Yes
  2. No

AGE_Q02: What is your age?

Age in years

Demographic information (GDR)

The following questions are about sex at birth and gender.

GDR_Q05: What was your sex at birth?

Sex refers to sex assigned at birth.

  1. Male
  2. Female

GDR_Q10: What is your gender?

Gender refers to current gender which may be different from sex assigned at birth and may be different from what is indicated on legal documents.

Is it:

  1. Male
  2. Female
  3. Or please specify

GDR_Q11: What is your [spouse/partner]'s gender?

Gender refers to current gender which may be different from sex assigned at birth and may be different from what is indicated on legal documents.

Is it:

  1. Male
  2. Female
  3. Or please specify

Please verify that all of the information is correct. 

If all the information is correct, press the Next button. 

To make changes, press the Previous button.

Your information  
Sex assigned at birth: [Male/Female/Information not provided]
Gender: [Male/Female/GDR_S10/Information not provided]

Your [spouse/partner]’s information  
Gender: [Male/Female/GDR_S10/Information not provided]

General Time Use (UOT)

Now, a few general questions related to time.

UOT_Q01: Using a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means “Very dissatisfied” and 10 means “Very satisfied”, how satisfied are you with how you use your time?

0 - Very dissatisfied
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 - Very satisfied

Unpaid service (UH)

Last week, how many hours did you spend doing the following?

Children are defined as 14 years of age or younger.

Seniors are defined as 65 years of age or older.

Note: Press the help button (?) for additional information, including what to include and what to exclude and how to report amounts less than 1 hour.

UH_Q01: Looking after one or more of the children living in your household, without pay

Include:

  • time when you were doing another activity while looking after the children;
  • time when looking after the children was shared with someone else;
  • time when the child was having a nap.

Exclude:

  • time the child spent sleeping during the night;
  • time the child spent at school, at a friend's or in organized activities.

Exclude volunteer services provided through a non-profit or religious organization, charity or community group.

Fractions should be reported as follows:

¼ hour = 0.25
½ hour = 0.50
¾ hour = 0.75

UH_Q02: Looking after one or more children living outside your household, without pay

UH_Q03: Doing unpaid housework, yard work or home maintenance for your household

UH_Q04: Doing unpaid housework, yard work or home maintenance for persons living outside your household

UH_Q05: Providing unpaid care or assistance to one or more seniors living in your household

UH_Q06: Providing unpaid care or assistance to one or more seniors living outside your household

Care of children (CHLD)

The next questions deal with care provided to children 14 years old or younger living in your household.

CHLD_Q01: During the week, who is mainly providing physical care to the children such as bathing, feeding, dressing? 

Is it:

  1. Yourself
  2. Your spouse or partner
  3. Equally shared between yourself and your spouse or partner
  4. Other household child
  5. Other household member
  6. Someone from outside the household

CHLD_Q02: During the week, who is mainly helping the children with homework or other school related matters?

Is it:

  1. Yourself
  2. Your spouse or partner
  3. Equally shared between yourself and your spouse or partner
  4. Other household child
  5. Other household member
  6. Someone from outside the household

CHLD_Q03: During the week, who mainly plays with, reads to, does outside activities or takes part in leisure activities with the children?

Is it:

  1. Yourself
  2. Your spouse or partner
  3. Equally shared between yourself and your spouse or partner
  4. Other household child
  5. Other household member
  6. Someone from outside the household

CHLD_Q04: During the week, who mainly accompanies the children to daycare, school, the bus stop, appointments or practices?

Is it:

  1. Yourself
  2. Your spouse or partner
  3. Equally shared between yourself and your spouse or partner
  4. Other household child
  5. Other household member
  6. Someone from outside the household

General health (GEN)

The following questions are about health. By health, we mean not only the absence of disease or injury but also physical, mental and social well-being.

GEN_Q01: In general, how is your health?

Would you say:

  1. Excellent
  2. Very good
  3. Good
  4. Fair
  5. Poor

Perceived health is an indicator of overall health status. It can reflect aspects of health not captured in other measures, such as: incipient disease, disease severity, aspects of positive health status, physiological and psychological reserves and social and mental function. Perceived health refers to the perception of a person’s health in general, either by the person himself or herself, or, in the case of proxy response, by the person responding. Health means not only the absence of disease or injury but also physical, mental and social well-being.

GEN_Q02: In general, how is your mental health?

Would you say:

  1. Excellent
  2. Very good
  3. Good
  4. Fair
  5. Poor

Main Activity (MAC)

The following question refers to your main activity.

MAC_Q05: Last week, was your main activity working at a paid job or business, looking for paid work, going to school, caring for children, household work, retired or something else?

Was it:

  1. Working at a paid job or business
  2. Vacation from paid work
  3. Looking for paid work
  4. Going to school, including vacation from school
  5. Caring for children
  6. Household work
  7. Retired
  8. Maternity, paternity or parental leave
  9. Long term illness
  10. Volunteering
  11. Care-giving other than for children
  12. Other

Education (ED)

ED_Q05: What is the highest certificate, diploma or degree that you have completed?

  1. Less than high school diploma or its equivalent
  2. High school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate
  3. Trades certificate or diploma
  4. College, CEGEP or other non-university certificate or diploma (other than trades certificates or diplomas)
  5. University certificate or diploma below the bachelor's level
  6. Bachelor's degree
    Help text: e.g., B.A., B.A. (Hons), B.Sc., B.Ed., LL.B.
  7. University certificate, diploma, or degree above the bachelor's level

Housing characteristics (DOR)

The following question asks about your housing characteristics.

DOR_Q110: What type of dwelling are you living in now?

If you are living in a condominium or seniors’ housing, identify the type of building (e.g., townhouse, high-rise apartment, low-rise apartment or other).

Is it:

  1. A single detached house
  2. A semi-detached or double
    Help text: i.e., one of two dwellings attached side by side or back to back
  3. A garden home, townhouse or row house
  4. A duplex
    Help text: i.e., one of two dwellings located one above the other
  5. A low-rise apartment of less than 5 stories
  6. A high-rise apartment of 5 stories or more
  7. A mobile home or trailer
  8. Other type of dwelling

Place of birth, immigration and citizenship (IM/DEM1)

IM_Q01A: Where were you born?

  1. Born in Canada
  2. Born outside Canada

IM_Q03: Are you now, or have you ever been a landed immigrant?

A "landed immigrant" (permanent resident) is a person who has been granted the right to live in Canada permanently by immigration authorities.

  1. Yes
  2. No

For persons who are Canadian citizens by birth, foreign students, foreign workers, or refugee claimants (asylum seekers):

  • select “No”.

For persons who are Canadian citizens by naturalization or are permanent residents under the Immigration Act (permanent residents have been granted the right to live permanently in Canada by Canadian immigration authorities but have not yet obtained Canadian citizenship):

  • select “Yes”.

DEM1_Q05B: Are you a Canadian citizen?

  1. Yes, a Canadian citizen by birth
  2. Yes, a Canadian citizen by naturalization
    Canadian citizen by naturalization refers to an immigrant who was granted citizenship of Canada under the Citizenship Act.
  3. No, not a Canadian citizen

Language (LAN)

LAN_Q01: Can you speak English or French well enough to conduct a conversation?

  1. English only
  2. French only
  3. Both English and French
  4. Neither English nor French
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