Canadian Housing Survey

Detailed information for 2022

Status:

Active

Frequency:

Every 2 years

Record number:

5269

This survey collects information about housing needs and experiences from a sample of Canadian households. Information is collected on core housing need, dwelling and neighbourhood satisfaction, housing moves, and other aspects of well-being related to housing.

Data release - Scheduled for June 2024

Description

The Canadian Housing Survey (CHS) provides information on how Canadians feel about their housing and how housing affects them. Information is collected on core housing need; dwelling characteristics and housing tenure; perceptions of economic hardship from housing costs; support and childcare payments; dwelling and neighbourhood satisfaction; perceptions of neighbourhood issues and safety; housing moves including forced moves; community engagement; life and community satisfaction; self-assessed health; experience with homelessness; socio-demographic characteristics; and access to transportation.

Social and Affordable Housing (SAH) is an important part of the housing stock that provides housing to people in need. The CHS aims to provide detailed and precise statistics on households in SAH by oversampling this subpopulation.

The CHS 2022 will be carried out in all 10 provinces.

Collection period: The data will be collected from October 31, 2022 until March 31, 2023.

Subjects

  • Families, households and housing
  • Household characteristics

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population is the population of Canada's 10 provinces excluding residents of institutions, members of the Canadian Forces living in military camps and people living on Indian reserves. In all, these exclusions make up about 2% of the population.

People living in other types of collective dwellings are also excluded from the survey:
- people living in residences for dependent seniors; and
- people living permanently in school residences, work camps, etc.; and
- members of religious and other communal colonies.

Collection exclusions make up less than 0.5% of the target population. However, these people are included in the population estimates to which the CHS estimates are adjusted.

Instrument design

The questionnaire content was determined in consultation with the survey sponsor (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation). Standardized content was used when available. Harmonized content was also re-used from past or existing surveys. A questionnaire design specialist was consulted during the design phase. The survey also underwent qualitative testing prior to collection, and recommendations were incorporated.

The questionnaire follows standard practices and wording used in electronic questionnaires, such as the automatic control of flows that depend on answers to earlier questions, and the use of edits to check for logical inconsistencies and input errors. The computer application for data collection was tested extensively.

Sampling

Sampling unit:
The sampling unit for the CHS is the private dwelling.

Stratification method:
The 2022 CHS uses the Statistical Building Register (SBgR) as a survey frame. Administrative data is used to classify SAH dwellings into separate strata on the frame. The frame is also stratified into geographic areas of interest based on census subdivision (CSD) boundaries.

There are 41 different geographic strata including the largest census metropolitan area (CMA) in each province; CMAs with a population of more than 500,000 according to the last census; the census agglomerations (CAs) of Charlottetown; combined CMAs and combined CAs in each province; as well as the regions outside CMAs and CAs in each province.

Each geographic stratum is divided into two groups: SAH dwellings and all other dwellings. Sub-strata are used to more efficiently sample rented and owned dwellings within the non-SAH strata, which are equally represented in the sample but not in the population.

Sampling and sub-sampling:
The CHS is cross-sectional with dwellings selected at random for each new survey cycle.
The CHS oversamples SAH dwellings. As a result, the sample includes a higher proportion of SAH dwellings than what is present in the housing stock (about 28% in the sample versus 5% in the housing stock).
SAH dwellings are an important part of the housing stock that provides housing at below-market rents to households in need. The oversampling of SAH dwelling helps to ensure there will be enough survey responses to produce accurate statistics for this sub-population.

The sample size for the CHS is determined by calculating the number of respondents necessary to create estimates with the desired level of precision in each stratum. Precision is measured by the coefficient of variation (CV). The target CV is 10% in census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and in census agglomerations (CAs); 15% outside CMAs and CAs; and 15% in the SAH strata. The sample size for cycle 3 is ~95,000 dwellings, of which 26,898 are SAH.

Within each stratum (geography by SAH status and tenure), a systematic random sample is independently selected. Records are sorted by predicted household income, obtained from administrative records. This ensures the sample includes households with low, medium and high income, making the sample more representative.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2022-10-31 to 2023-03-31

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

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

The CHS asked that the survey be completed by the household member with the most knowledge of the household's housing situation. In all cases, this person was aged 15 years or older. Proxy response was accepted for questions about other household members. This allowed one household member to answer questions on behalf of any or all other household members.

The metadata will be provided upon release.

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

Error detection

The metadata will be provided upon release.

Imputation

The metadata will be provided upon release.

Estimation

The metadata will be provided upon release.

Quality evaluation

The metadata will be provided upon release.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which 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.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

Not applicable

Data accuracy

The metadata will be provided upon release.

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