Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD)

Detailed information for 1982 to 2003

The Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD) is a longitudinal file designed as a research tool on income and demographics.

Data release - June 28, 2005

• Description
• Data sources and methodology

Description

The Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD) is a longitudinal file designed as a research tool on income and demographics. It comprises a 20% sample of the annual T1 Family File (record number 4105) and the Longitudinal Immigration Data Base (record number 5057). Variables have been harmonized where possible and individuals can be linked year to year starting with 1982 data. The file is augmented annually with new data.

The longitudinal file contains many annual demographic variables about the individuals represented and annual income information for both the individual and their census family in that year. For immigrants landed between 1980 and 2012, the file also contains certain key characteristics observed at landing.

The longitudinal nature of the LAD permits custom-tailored research into dynamic phenomena, as well as representative cross-sectional patterns. Data are mainly used by government departments to evaluate programs and support policy recommendations. Academics, private consultants and Statistics Canada researchers also use the data for analyses of socio-economic conditions.

Reference period: Calendar year

Subjects

• Household, family and personal income
• Immigration and ethnocultural diversity (formerly Ethnic diversity and immigration)
• Income, pensions, spending and wealth
• Labour market and income
• Personal and household taxation

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The population of interest is all members of Canadian families (families that include at least one person living in Canada). For cross-sectional purposes, in any specific reference year, the data cover all persons who completed a T1 tax return for that year or who received Canada Child Tax Benefits (CCTB) in that year, their non-filing spouses (including wage and salary information from the T4 file), their non-filing children identified from three sources (the CCTB file, the births files, and an historical file) and filing children who reported the same address as their parent. The dataset is based on the census family concept. The census family includes parent(s) and children living at the same address and non-family persons (people neither with a partner nor living with unmarried, childless children at the same address). For the longitudinal projects, it is only possible to link together data from years where a reliable identifier is available: only persons who completed a T1 tax return or who received CCTB, most of their non-filing spouses and non-filing children under 19 years of age who have previously filed will have a reliable identifier and can be followed across years. This limits representative longitudinal analysis to individuals who have started filing income tax returns and their partners. However, this covers around 75% of the official population estimates.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a longitudinal design.