Glossary

The documentation of Statistics Canada micro-data files contains a variety of terms. Two online glossaries that can be consulted are:

Statistics Canada - Glossary of Statistical Terms for Survey Data

Statistics Canada - Definitions
Includes the definition of an "economic family" plus many other useful concepts.

Census Metropolitan Area (CMA)

The definition below is from the codebook documentation for the 1996 Census micro-data file.

The general concept of a census metropolitan area (CMA) is one of a very large urban area, together with adjacent urban and rural areas which have a high degree of economic and social integration with that urban area. A CMA is delineated around an urban area (called the urban core and having a population of at least 100,000, based on the previous census).

Below is a table of population for the census metropolitan areas of Canada in the years 1996 and 1998.

Census Metropolitan Area		Population
Census Metropolitan Area		1996	1998
British Columbia	Vancouver	1,912,100	1,995,900
	Victoria	316,800	318,100
Alberta	Edmonton	885,100	917,500
	Calgary	845,500	907,100
Saskatchewan	Saskatoon	226,000	229,300
	Regina	199,500	199,500
Manitoba	Winnipeg	679,200	676,400
Ontario	Toronto	4,403,100	4,594,900
	Ottawa-Hull	1,037,900	1,056,700
	Hamilton	642,700	658,600
	London	410,400	418,200
	Kitchener	395,200	409,500
	St. Catherines-Niagara Falls	382,800	389,100
	Windsor	287,500	296,700
	Oshawa	277,100	289,200
	Sudbury	165,000	163,300
	Thunder Bay	129,100	128,600
Quebec	Montreal	3,393,700	3,428,300
	Quebec	683,700	687,200
	Chicoutimi-Jonque	162,900	162,000
	Sherbrooke	150,100	152,700
	Trois-Rivieres	142,200	142,400
Atlantic Region	Halifax	341,500	348,000
	St. John's	177,100	173,600
	Saint John	128,000	127,300

Note: A census metropolitan area may cross provincial boundaries. For example, Hull is in the province of Quebec, but is included as part of Canada's capital region centered in Ottawa.

Acknowledgement: The above table was obtained from http://www.demographia.com/db-cancma.htm.
The source of the data is:
Statistics Canada, Annual Demographic Statistics, 1998, Catalogue No. 91-213.

Public Use Microdata File (PUMF)

A public use microdata file (PUMF) contains a sample of data on the characteristics of respondents to a survey or census. To ensure the anonymity of the respondents, some identifying characteristics are excluded from the data file. For example, geographic identifiers are in most cases restricted to the provinces/territories and large metropolitan areas. This protects the confidentiality of respondents.

The microdata file contains individual weights for each respondent. The weights can be used to expand the sample to a population total that corresponds to a census total.