Canadian Income Survey (CIS)

Detailed information for 2024

The Canadian Income Survey (CIS) is a cross-sectional survey developed to provide a portrait of the income and income sources of Canadians, with their individual and household characteristics.

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology

Description

The primary objective of the Canadian Income Survey (CIS) is to provide information on the income and income sources of Canadians, along with their individual and household characteristics. The data collected in the CIS is combined with Labour Force Survey (LFS, record number 3701) and tax data.

The survey gathers information on labour market activity, school attendance, disability, unmet health care needs, support payments, child care expenses, personal income, food security, and characteristics and costs of housing. This content is supplemented with information on individual and household characteristics (e.g. age, educational attainment, main job characteristics, family type), as well as geographic details (e.g. province/territory, census metropolitan area (CMA)) from the LFS. Tax data for income and income sources are also combined with the survey data.

Results from the survey are made available not only to various levels of government, but also to individuals and organizations. All levels of government can use CIS data to shape policies and programs related to the economic well-being of Canadians. Statistical organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) use the results for international benchmarking and comparison studies.

Reference period: Calendar year

Collection period: Usually January through June of the year following the reference year.

Subjects

• Families, households and housing
• Household, family and personal income
• Income, pensions, spending and wealth
• Labour
• Low income and inequality

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The survey is conducted nationwide, in both the provinces and the territories. It covers all individuals in Canada, excluding persons living on reserves and other Indigenous settlements in the provinces, the institutionalized population, and households in extremely remote areas with very low population density. Overall, these exclusions amount to less than two percent of the population.

Instrument design

Qualitative testing was carried out by Statistics Canada's Questionnaire Design Resource Centre (QDRC) for selected modules of the survey questionnaire, while questions for the remaining modules came from other Statistics Canada surveys. Question wording adheres as closely as possible to questions established by the Harmonized Content Committee at Statistics Canada.

The questionnaire follows standard practices and wording used in a computer-assisted interviewing environment, such as the automatic control of flows that depend upon answers to earlier questions and the use of edits to check for logical inconsistencies and capture errors. The computer application for data collection was tested extensively.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

The Canadian Income Survey is administered to a sub-sample of LFS respondents. The LFS sample is drawn from an area frame and is based on a stratified, multi-stage design that uses probability sampling.

The LFS uses a rotating panel sample design. In the provinces, selected dwellings remain in the LFS sample for six consecutive months. Each month, about one-sixth of the LFS sampled dwellings are in their first month of the survey, one-sixth are in their second month of the survey, and so on. These six independent samples are called rotation groups. In the territories, the sample is composed of eight rotation groups. Selected dwellings are interviewed every quarter and remain in the LFS sample for two years.

For the 2024 CIS, six rotation groups from the LFS are used in the provinces: the rotation groups answering the LFS for the last time from January to June of 2025. In the territories, dwellings from all rotation groups are included in the CIS.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2025-01-19 to 2025-07-07

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents and extracted from administrative files.

CIS interviews are conducted by telephone by interviewers working in a regional office or by personal visit from a field interviewer. In addition, respondents who meet certain criteria are offered the option of completing the survey on-line.

In each dwelling, information about all household members is usually obtained from one knowledgeable household member. Such 'proxy' reporting is used to avoid the high cost and extended time requirements that would be involved in repeat visits or calls necessary to obtain information directly from each respondent.

Personal income data from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) are used for income and income sources information.

In recent years, the Canadian Income Survey (CIS) has introduced improvements to the methods and sources used to produce income estimates. Beginning with the 2021 reference year, CIS income data were produced from the Administrative Personal Income Masterfile, a comprehensive source of personal income data generated not only from T1 tax returns, but also from associated tax slips. CIS estimates for previous years were produced using T1 tax returns only. Please consult the document Improvements to the Canadian Income Survey Methodology for the 2021 Reference Year for more information.

More improvements were introduced with the 2022 reference year. Foremost among these improvements was a significant increase in the sample size for a large subset of the CIS content. The inclusion of some of the CIS modules in a new Labour Force Survey supplement, the Labour Market and Socioeconomic Indicators, doubles the sample size for income and poverty estimates. The weighting methodology was also improved and the target population for income data was changed from persons aged 16 years and over to persons aged 15 years and over. Please consult the document Improvements to the Canadian Income Survey Methodology for the 2022 Reference Year for more information.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .