Canadian Market Research

Canadian Demographics

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2006 Census results will not be fully released until May 2008.  If require demographic details that are not yet covered in the 2006 Census release cycle there are a couple of options that can help you:.

The first is Statistics Canada's publication Annual Demographic Statistics. It provides the latest population estimates by age group and sex, as well as data on births, deaths and migrations. Information is presented by province and territory, census metropolitan area, census division (e.g. regional municipality) and economic region. It also includes data on marital status and for census families.  You can access this annual publication online free of charge.

Another resource is FP Markets - Canadian Demographics.  This publication was already mentioned above in conjunction with retail sales data.  It is also an excellent resource for basic demographic information (e.g. age, gender, marital status, income, education, dwelling type) for cities and towns across Canada.  It is updated annually and provides estimates for the current year. 

It also includes two sets of detailed consumer psychographic profiles for each community. The first "PSYTE" profiles examine lifestyle patterns and segments the population into 60 different categories.

For example:

THE AFFLUENTS:  Very affluent and educated middle-aged executive and professional families.  Expensive, large lightly mortgaged houses in very stable, older, executive sections of larger cities. Older children and teenagers.

The second set of PSYTE profiles provide a different segmentation based on financial psychographics.

For example:

MORTGAGES & MINIVANS: Large suburban families with young children.  The average household income is above average but dwelling values are significantly below average.... Dual incomes predominate and jobs are a mix of white and gray collar... The tendency towards larger families results in significant expenditures on child care, toys and sports equipment.

FP Markets - Canadian Demographics provides you with the number and percentage of households that fall into each category by city or town. (E.g. 0.61% of households (342) in St Catharines, Ontario are classified as "The Affluents"). 

You can access this publication at most major libraries and business development centres.  You can also purchase it by contacting the Financial Post
http://www.fpinfomart.ca/   ($199)

Another helpful source is SuperDemographics.  This site lets you identify free of charge the Lifestyle population groups within a 0.1km to 10km radius of a specific postal code. 

An example of a lifestyle group is:

CLUSTER A: TOP GUN METRO: Top lifestyle, in management, the social sciences, education, government and as business owners (2X average). Average income: $129,200; home value $389,000. Average maintainers’ age, 50, household size 3.1. 75% are English speaking, preferring Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa. With more than 15 years of education, they spend 4X average on education, and investments. They travel 3 times the average, golf, ski and play soccer. They have worldly reading habits.

 

For a fee ($120 for one month) the SuperDemographics web site also lets you access other local data on spending patterns and Census demographics.  All figures have been estimated forward.

Local labour market profiles are available from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.  Each local office produces monthly/quarterly as well as annual labour market information reports.  The data is collected to profile the employment situation in the local community, but the same information can be used to get an insight into the local consumer market and economy.  It identifies major companies that have closed or opened operations, employment conditions, general local economic performance, along with market and industry trends.  You can access these reports at: 
http://www.labourmarketinformation.ca/standard.asp?ppid=92

Select your province then your city/region and then click on either Labour Market Bulletins or Annual Labour Market Perspectives.

For data on population forecasts see the Forecasts research guide.

Finally look at the vast collection of demographic and market information compiled in our Source Lists.  The Market sector is divided into the following subsectors:  

Next: Ethnic Markets

© John White, GDSourcing - Research & Retrieval 2006