Provincial and Territorial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Income and by Expenditure Accounts

Detailed information for 2016

Status:

Active

Frequency:

Annual

Record number:

1902

The Provincial and Territorial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Income and by Expenditure Accounts program produces annual estimates of selected aggregates of the National GDP by Income and by Expenditure Accounts, by province and territory: GDP, final domestic demand, household income and government sector accounts.

Data release - November 8, 2017

Description

The Provincial and Territorial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Income and by Expenditure Accounts program produces annual estimates of selected aggregates of the National GDP by Income and Expenditure Accounts, by province and territory: GDP, final domestic demand, household income and government sector accounts.

The data are used in macroeconomic analysis and forecasting, for policy analysis and for econometric modelling and hypothesis testing by federal and provincial government officials, business people, academics, economists and international organizations.

Statistical activity

The Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts provides a conceptually integrated statistical framework for studying the state and behaviour of the Canadian economy. The accounts are centered on the measurement of activities associated with the production of goods and services, the sales of goods and services in final markets, the supporting financial transactions and the resulting wealth positions.

Provincial and territorial accounts - The System of National Economic Accounts disseminates a wide variety of data at the provincial and territorial level on topics such as the environment, government finance, gross domestic product (GDP) and its components, GDP by industry, tourism and labour productivity.

Subjects

  • Economic accounts
  • Gross domestic product
  • Income and expenditure accounts

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The Canadian economy (households, non-profit institutions serving households, financial corporations, non-financial corporations, governments and non-residents).

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This methodology does not apply.

Data sources

Data are extracted from administrative files and derived from other Statistics Canada surveys and/or other sources.

The Provincial and Territorial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Income and by Expenditure Accounts provide a measure of macroeconomic activity on an annual basis, as represented by income and expenditure-based GDP, and rely heavily on a wealth of information from various areas of Statistics Canada. A large amount of information from various survey divisions within the bureau, along with other data, is compiled, integrated and analysed as part of the complex process of arriving at provincial GDP and its component categories and underlying sector accounts.

Major suppliers of data within Statistics Canada include: Agriculture Division, Investment, Science and Technology Division, Income Statistics Division, International Trade, Accounts and Statistics Division, Industrial Organization and Finance Division, Labour Statistics Division, Public Sector Statistics Division, and Administrative Data Division. Numerous external and administrative sources of data are also used.

Error detection

This methodology type does not apply to this statistical program.

Imputation

This methodology does not apply.

Estimation

The Provincial and Territorial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Income and by Expenditure Accounts measure the unduplicated value of production in two separate ways. The first simply sums all of the factor incomes (compensation of employees, gross operating surplus, gross mixed income and taxes) generated by this productive activity - incomes representing the returns to the labour and capital employed. The second approach sums all sales which firms have made to final users - to households, non-profit institutions serving households, governments and businesses on capital account, or in export markets. This approach also provides an unduplicated value of total production. Imports have to be deducted from this summation since they are implicitly included in these final sales and should not be counted as a part of indigenous production - they represent part of the exogenous production. Sales from one firm to another (intermediate production) are not counted since this would involve double counting, all intermediate production being embodied in final output sold to users. This 'sales to final users' (or 'sum of expenditures') approach yields the same value of production as the 'sum of incomes' approach. After the initial estimates of income and expenditure-side GDP are produced, the discrepancy is assessed.

Real GDP is only calculated in terms of expenditure; this is why only the components that are part of the GDP by expenditures are calculated in real terms.

Quality evaluation

Data are analysed for time series consistency, links to current economic events, issues arising from the source data and coherence. As well, the discrepancy between the estimates of income and expenditure-side GDP is assessed.

It is not possible to produce an equivalent to the Provincial and Territorial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Income and by Expenditure Accounts, except at the aggregate level. At the level of GDP, the unduplicated value of production can also be measured by taking the gross value of production of each firm and subtracting each firm's intermediate inputs in the form of its purchases from other firms (including imports) to yield the 'net value added' to production by the firm. Estimates of this type are produced in the provincial input-output tables, as well as in the industry-based estimates of GDP by province. Real GDP estimates can then be compared with the results of the provincial GDP by industry program. Annually, the provincial income and expenditure data are benchmarked to the input-output accounts.

Certain components of income and expenditure-based GDP can be obtained in survey divisions, but typically the data are not directly comparable. Also, the national estimates have to be allocated by province and by territory to reflect where the activity took place rather than where the head office is located.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

In order to prevent any data disclosure, confidentiality analysis is done using the Statistics Canada Generalized Disclosure Control System (G-Confid). G-Confid is used for primary suppression (direct disclosure) as well as for secondary suppression (residual disclosure). Direct disclosure occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of or dominated by few enterprises while residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Revisions - Estimates are released in the fall of each year. This release also comprises revisions to the two previous years. Estimates are not normally revised again except when historical revisions are carried out. Statistical revisions are carried out in order to incorporate the most recent information from surveys, taxation statistics, public accounts, censuses, etc., as well as from the annual benchmarking process according to the input-output accounts.

Data accuracy

The accounts are designed as a double-entry system in which the income- and expenditure-based GDP totals should, in principle, be identical. In fact, a difference virtually always arises between them due to errors in the source data, imperfect estimation techniques, and discrepancies in the time at which the incomes and expenditures are recorded.

The size of the discrepancy, which stems from the estimation procedure, is one gauge of the system's overall reliability. However, it is a partial and quite insufficient gauge. Another quality measure is how well real expenditure-side GDP compares to the real GDP by industry measure.

No direct measures of the margin of error in the estimates can be calculated. The quality of the estimates can be inferred from analysis of revisions and from a subjective assessment of the data sources and methodology used in the preparation of the estimates.

Documentation

  • User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts
    This guide provides a detailed explanation of the structure, concepts and history of the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts.

    Last review: June 22, 2018
  • Latest Developments in the Canadian Economic Accounts
    For further information please refer to "Latest developments in the Canadian economic accounts", Statistics Canada, Catalogue no. 13-605-X.

    The side bar menu of this electronic publication includes: chronology of events, conceptual changes, classification changes, and data revisions.
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