Indigenous Peoples Economic Account (IPEA)

Detailed information for 2012 to 2021

The Indigenous Peoples Economic Account (IPEA) is a suite of economic statistics that aims to measure the economic contribution, in terms of gross domestic income (GDI) and jobs, of Indigenous people to the Canadian economy.

Data release - April 2, 2024

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

The IPEA consists of three main components: the Indigenous Peoples Economic Indicators (IPEIs), the Human Resource Module (HRM) and supplementary analysis tables.

First, the core of the IPEA is the economic indicators. The IPEIs provide a measure of GDI, output and the total number of jobs. These estimates are calculated based on the share of Indigenous labour income, as well as the share of gross operating surplus and gross mixed income attributable to Indigenous-owned businesses.

Second, to complement and enhance the analytical capacity of the economic indicators, an HRM is also available. The HRM provides a statistical snapshot of the employment of Indigenous people, along with insights into trends over time by province and territory, as well as industry. Using the HRM estimates, analyses can be made on the following key statistics: employee jobs, hours worked, and wages and salaries. These key statistics can be analyzed according to various job characteristics of paid workers (full-time or part-time, occupation group) and the characteristics of the people holding these jobs (sex, age group and level of education). In addition, it should be emphasized that the HRM uses the number of jobs as its key measure of employment and not the number of people employed.

Finally, to further enhance the indicators, supplementary tables were developed to break down the economic indicators according to the distinct Indigenous identity groups. Another table presents the indicators according to location of the residence: on or off reserve. Because of data restrictions, these tables are available only for current census years.

Reference period: Annual - calendar year

Subjects

• Economic accounts
• Labour

Data sources and methodology

Target population

Individuals who identify as Indigenous and businesses that are majority owned (50% + 1) by individuals who identify as Indigenous.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This methodology does not apply.

Data sources

Data are collected from other Statistics Canada surveys and/or other sources.

To derive the HRM for the IPEA, the Human Resources Module of the Canadian Economy is used. This includes the Census of Population and the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which are used to develop ratios of various characteristics. These ratios are used in conjunction with estimates of job counts, salaries and wages, and hours worked by industry from the Canadian Productivity Accounts.

Through the long-form census questionnaire and the National Household Survey (NHS), information pertaining to Indigenous identity and labour income is available. These questions about Indigenous identity were used to define the Indigenous population to be included in the measurement. Like the other sociodemographic variables used in the HRM, Indigenous identity is based on self-identification questions. This means that Indigenous identity is not contingent on any status in relation to any treaty or law. Moreover, no adjustments were made to the source data. This means that people in any Indigenous community who were incompletely enumerated in the census or NHS are not included in any of the Indigenous-related estimates presented in this account.

The main data sources used to derive the Indigenous economic indicators include
- official supply and use tables by province and territory
- National Accounts estimates of GDI and its components by province and territory
- profit ratios derived from the Canadian Employer-Employee Dynamics Database (CEEDD) linked to the Census of Population
- labour income ratios derived from the HRM.

Error detection

This methodology does not apply.

Imputation

This methodology does not apply.

Estimation

The methodology used to produce the HRM estimates is not new. Statistics Canada produces a number of HRMs associated with various satellite accounts. Over the years, the methodology has been refined and adapted to fulfill the needs of the various satellite accounts. While improvements are still possible, this methodology generates reliable estimates.

There are three major steps involved in creating HRM estimates.

The first step involves creating demographic ratios for jobs, hours worked, and wages and salaries for census years. The ratios are developed and applied in layers. Each sociodemographic characteristic is considered a layer.

The second step is creating a full time series of demographic ratios. Up to this point, only ratios for census reference years have been obtained, and the intercensal years need to be estimated. Other sources such as the LFS already have a full time series, and no gaps will need to be filled. Ratios derived for census years are used as anchor points. By default, the interpolation in between is presumed to be a linear relationship. In other words, the ratios will grow or decline at a uniform rate depending on the difference between the two anchoring census years. This also means that the further away a reference year is from an anchor point, the less influence this anchor point has on the value.

In some situations, such as a change in legislation or a major world event with acute impacts, a linear interpolation may be inappropriate. In such situations, indicator series are used for the interpolation. Indicator series are used to validate and, when needed, interpolate between census years. Currently, the LFS is used. This means that the use of indicator series to interpolate is not systematic. For example, if new legislation were introduced between census years and significantly impacted the participation of women in the labour force, ratios from the LFS could be used to properly introduce the break in the time series.

For years beyond the latest census, the ratios from the latest census are kept constant. However, ratios from the LFS are derived, and if those ratios show a major break, then further validation is done. If needed, the ratios are adjusted to reflect the break.

The final step involves applying the ratios to Canadian Productivity Accounts estimates. Once the ratios have been validated and adjustments implemented, a dataset is created with the most detailed ratios available. Those ratios are then applied to the Canadian Productivity Accounts estimates. The ratios are applied by geography and industry.

The methodology to derive the IPEIs relies heavily upon the processes developed in the HRM to produce estimates of Indigenous GDI, output and jobs in Canada. The IPEIs leverage a combination of the Indigenous labour income ratios from the HRM and profit ratios developed using the CEEDD linked to the Census of Population and NHS. These ratios are then combined and applied to macroeconomic estimates of total GDI and output. To calculate the total jobs held by Indigenous people, the process is slightly different. The Indigenous labour income ratio is applied only to self-employed jobs. Together with the number of paid worker jobs already derived from the HRM, this produces the total number of jobs held by Indigenous people in Canada.

The IPEIs can be summarized into a five-step process:
1) Calculate the Indigenous labour income ratios from the HRM.
2) Establish ratios of the revenue of Indigenous-owned businesses from the linked CEEDD.
3) Create implicit Indigenous GDI ratios from the above-mentioned ratios using estimates of the components of total GDI from Statistics Canada's supply and use tables.
4) Establish macroeconomic totals across time.
5) Apply the ratios to these macroeconomic totals to produce Indigenous GDI, output and jobs.

The first step involves calculating the Indigenous labour income ratios by industry, province and territory, and time. The HRM provides the labour income of Indigenous people with that level of detail. The calculation of this ratio can be seen below. Dividing the sum of Indigenous labour income by the total labour income in its associated industry produces the Indigenous labour income ratio for that industry. This step is repeated for each industry and province and territory, resulting in distinct ratios for the Indigenous economies across Canada.

(Indigenous labour income ratio)ip=(Indigenous labour income)ip/(All labour income)ip

Where i = industry
p = province or territory

The second step involves a similar calculation using revenue from the linked CEEDD.

As a third step, Indigenous labour income ratios, along with revenue ratios, are combined into an implicit GDI ratio using income breakdowns from Statistics Canada's official supply and use tables by geography and industry.

Now that the ratios have been calculated, the fourth step involves preparing macroeconomic estimates of total GDI, output and self-employed jobs across Canada for the entire economy. This step is necessary to determine the portion that can be accounted for by Indigenous people. For output and GDI, developing these datasets involves collating varied macroeconomic sources and projecting them forward in time. The IPEIs leverage estimates of gross output and income-based gross domestic product that are already published in the Canadian System of National Accounts. These data are available at the provincial and territorial level; however, they do not span all the years that the IPEIs estimate. To derive estimates for years beyond what is available, various macroeconomic indicators are used to project forward. Each industry and variable may require a distinct approach to produce estimates for current years. This also applies to projecting these estimates across different provinces and territories.

For self-employed jobs, the Canadian Productivity Accounts already have estimates for each industry and province and territory, as well as for the entire time period included in the IPEIs. Therefore, there is no need for projections.

The last step of the IPEIs involves applying the implicit Indigenous GDI ratios to the estimates of total GDI and output, and labour income ratios to self-employed jobs by industry and province and territory to account for the proportion that can be attributed to Indigenous people. Using GDI as an example, the formula for this process can be seen below:

(Indigenous GDI)ip=(Implicit Indigenous GDI ratio)ip X (Total GDI)ip

Where i = industry
p = province or territory

To determine the total number of jobs held by Indigenous people, the Indigenous labour income ratio is used. It is also necessary to sum the number of Indigenous self-employed jobs with the number of Indigenous paid jobs calculated in the HRM.

With this step complete, the IPEIs have been estimated. The IPEIs first calculated Indigenous income ratios from the HRM, Indigenous led-business revenue ratios from the CEEDD linked to the census and NHS and then calculated implicit GDI ratios using the supply and use tables. Estimates of total GDI, output and jobs for the Canadian economy were then collated and projected forward. Finally, those ratios were applied to calculate the portion that can be attributable to Indigenous people.

Quality evaluation

The Indigenous Peoples Economic Account is based on a wide array of related and comparable data. Labour-related estimates are benchmarked to the Canadian Productivity Accounts and to the Census of Population, while the economic indicators are benchmarked to estimates from the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts.

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

Revisions to the IPEA are mainly attributable to revisions to the underlying source data, namely the Canadian Productivity Accounts; the introduction of a new census; and revisions of the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts. Statistical revisions are carried out regularly in the Canadian Productivity Accounts and the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts, to incorporate the most current information from censuses, annual surveys, administrative statistics, public accounts and other sources. Periodically, more comprehensive revisions are conducted. These provide an opportunity to improve estimation methods, incorporate improved data sources, introduce conceptual changes and adopt new international standards into the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts. Such revisions usually do not impact the Indigenous ratios used in the IPEA but rather the benchmarks to which they are applied.

Ratios are revised when a new census is available and when new data from the CEEDD are made available.

Seasonal adjustment is not necessary given that the IPEA by industry at the provincial and territorial level is available on an annual basis only.

Data accuracy

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.