Almost 100 years from now, family historians and other researchers will be looking at Canada’s 2021 census of the population and examining information not provided in previous census years.
New questions
For the first time, Statistics Canada will ask Canadians who worked part-time in 2020 or only for a part of the year to explain why they did not work full-time or for the entire year. The options that will be offered will include the fact they cared for their children or relatives, had an illness or disability, were students, or unable to find other work.
Census day will be May 11, 2021.
The census will ask Canadians to list all of the means of transportation they use to get to work, instead of only listing the single method on which they travel the longest distance.
There is a new question looking for the numbers of Inuit enrolled in Inuit land claims agreements, and another asking about Métis government representation.
The census will also ask respondents their sex at birth and their current gender identity.
As for ethnic origin, which aids genealogists in their research, there will be a new method of asking. According to an article in the Globe and Mail, “The census will no longer offer a small number of (ethnic) examples, referring instead to a list of hundreds of possible answers.”
The Globe and Mail also reported the census will add new questions “to count and locate veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces.”
Unfortunately, there is no question about the full names of the respondent’s parents and grandparents and when and where they were born.
Most expected to respond online
Statistics Canada is working on plans to deliver a “contactless census” if COVID-19 remains a threat.
In a technical briefing given on condition they not be named, Canadian Press reported the officials said in 2016, almost 90 per cent of Canadians responded to the census without an in-person contact, including online or by mail.
The 2021 census questionnaire was released online Friday.
Genealogy gem in three years
The 1931 Canada census should become available to the public in 2023, 92 years after it was collected.
