Statistics agency to review ethnicity question ahead of the 2021 census
OTTAWA — Statistics Canada officials estimate the number of people identifying as Jewish in the 2016 census could have been double what it was if not for a small change on the questionnaire.
The number of people identifying themselves as ethnically Jewish on the census has been steadily declining since 2001, but the 53.6 per cent drop between 2011 and 2016 was far too precipitous to be part of an ongoing trend.
A newly released review by Statistics Canada said the census could have identified between 270,000 and 298,000 Jews in Canada in 2016 if response patterns remained steady, instead of the almost 144,000 captured in the population count.
The review said the decline is most likely linked to the removal of Jewish on a list of examples that goes along with the question about ethnic and cultural origins. Deaths and emigration couldn’t account for the dramatic decline, nor were there errors in how the information was compiled.
Dropping the examples entirely wasn’t an option, the review said, because doing so could cause additional problems that would affect the results, such as respondents not understanding the question.
The national statistics agency has opted to test a new way to ask people about their ethnic origins, trying to wrangle a complex issue into a simple-to-understand question in time for the 2021 population counts.
Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies, said the concerns Jewish groups raised about the 2016 census results have become a much larger issue.
“This whole matter has raised a larger issue about the meaning of ethnic origins — how people understand ethnic origins,” he said. “We’re a country that accommodates multiple identities, but the measurement of those multiple identities is becoming increasingly complex.”
Statistics Canada’s longstanding practice is to ask respondents for the ethnic and cultural origins of their ancestors, listing just over two dozen examples based on the most frequent responses from the previous census.
Most of the examples are for countries — meaning that someone who identifies as Czech might mark it down even if it is not included in the list — but there might not be an equivalent for a “non-country-based origin” such as Jewish, the review said.
Statistics Canada is testing a method that provides only a brief description of different types of origins on the electronic questionnaire, but accompanies it with a link to “an extensive list of more than 400 origins” for anyone needing additional information.
“Origins would be treated equivalently instead of providing benefits to a selection used as examples at the expense of those not used as examples,” the report said.
Testing of the questions will take place this year.