Today Statistics Canada released profile tables for two National Household Survey topics : Aboriginal Peoples and Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity.  They have published three worthwhile reference documents to accompany the release: a user guide, "Data Quality and Confidentiality Standards and Guidelines", and a statement on data quality.

Two NHS profiles are in the catalogue

The Community Data Program team has brought the Census Subdivision and Census Metropolitan Area profile tables into the catalogue.  You can find them here in .ivt format (Beyond 20/20):

• NHS Profile: Aboriginal Peoples; Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity (2011) - CDCSD
• NHS Profile: Aboriginal Peoples; Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity (2011) - CMACA

If you're interested in a different format, you can download the same tables in .csv and .tab, or .ivt and .xml directly from the source.

Data quality and the "non-response error"

The quality of small area data (e.g. Census Tract, Dissemination Area) from the NHS is not yet known, but Statistics Canada expects the non-response error -- a bias resulting from discrepancies in response rates by subsets of the population -- to increase as the geographic scale becomes finer. 

Over the summer, we'll work with the Data purchase and access working group to better understand data quality issues like the non-response error, and how they will affect our upcoming NHS custom orders.

Stay tuned for updates from the Community Data Program Team.