New statistical measures for the digital age

Advancements in technology and the Internet have fundamentally changed how people and businesses interact and how they produce, distribute and consume goods and services. As technological advancement continues and digitalization rapidly expands to more segments of the economy, there is an increasing need to accurately measure and assess its impacts.

Today, Statistics Canada is releasing for the first time estimates of the economic value of digital economic activities, that is, activities that enable or are highly affected by digitization. Initial estimates are presented on the value, growth and nature of digital economic activities in Canada, the provinces and the territories.

To enhance these initial estimates and ensure that statistical measures reflect emerging economic phenomena, Statistics Canada will continue to explore innovative ways to measure the digitalization of the economy. This includes moving beyond traditional household and business surveys—many of which are not well suited to capturing digital economic activities—to using new data sources and methods, such as administrative data, crowdsourcing and web scraping.

Read the rest of the article here: The Daily, released May 3, 2019