Title: General social survey, cycle 14 - access to and use of information communications technology, 2000 [Revised ed. 2001-06-21]

Series title: General social surveys

Principal investigator(s): Statistics Canada. General Social Surveys

Producer: Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada. General Social Surveys (12M0014XCB)

Date of creation: Rev. ed. 2001-06-21

Funding agency:

Collector:

Distributor: Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada. Data Liberation Initiative

Date of distribution: 2001-11-08

Access conditions/restrictions: University of Toronto faculty, students and staff, for academic research and teaching purposes only. See DLI licence.

Summary: The two primary objectives of the General Social Survey (GSS) are: to gather data on social trends in order to monitor changes in the living conditions and well being of Canadians over time; and to provide information on specific social policy issues of current or emerging interest.

Cycle 14 is the first cycle to collect detailed information on access to and use of information communication technology in Canada. Topics include general use of technology and computers, technology in the workplace, development of computer skills, frequency of Internet and E-mail use, non-users and security and information on the Internet. The target population of the GSS is all individuals aged 15 and over living in a private household in one of the ten provinces.

Keywords: individual and household internet use , information and communications technology , society and community

Geographic coverage: Canada, provinces

Time period: 2000-01 to 2000-12

Periodicity:

Date(s) of collection: 2000-01 to 2000-12

Universe: The target population is non-institutionalized persons 15 years of age or older, living in the ten provinces.

Data type: public use microdata

Sample: This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

Data for Cycle 14 of the GSS were collected in 12 independent monthly samples from January to December 2000. The target sample sizes for each month were initially the same but were adjusted slightly during the year to try to achieve a final overall sample size of 25,090 respondents. These samples were all selected using the random digit dialing (RDD) technique known at Statistics Canada as the Elimination of Non-Working Banks (ENWB).

In order to carry out sampling, each of the ten provinces was divided into strata and separate samples were selected from each stratum. These strata were defined geographically.

The provincial boundaries were used as the first level of stratum boundary. Then, within each province, a separate stratum containing the Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs), taken together, was created. Finally, separate strata were created for Toronto and Montreal. This resulted in 21 strata being defined: a single stratum for PEI (since it doesn't contain a CMA), two strata (CMA and non-CMA) each for Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, and three strata (Toronto / Montreal, other CMAs, non-CMA) each for Quebec and Ontario. This is the same stratification used for many previous cycles of the GSS but is different from that used for Cycle 13, when there were 27 strata in all.

Unit of observation: individual

Mode of data collection: Computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI)

Citation: Statistics Canada. General social survey cycle 14 : access to and use of information communications technology, 2000 [computer file]. Rev. ed 2001-06-21. Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada [producer]; Statistics Canada. Data Liberation Initiative [distributor], 2001-11.

Extent of file: 1 data file (25,090 logical records varies) & accompanying documentation

Notes: When a probability sample is used, as was the case for the GSS, the principle behind estimation is that each person selected in the sample represents (in addition to himself/herself) several other persons not in the sample. For example, in a simple random sample of 2% of the population, each person in the sample represents 50 persons in the population (himself/herself and 49 others). The number of persons represented by a given respondent is usually known as the weight or weighting factor.

WGHT_PER: This is the basic weighting factor for analysis at the person level, i.e. to calculate estimates of the number of persons (non-institutionalized and aged 15 and older) having one or several given characteristics. WGHT_PER should be used for all estimates. For example, to estimate the number of persons who used a computer in the last 12 months, the value of WGHT_PER is summed over all records with this characteristic (A7=1).

GSS Cycle 14 was a survey of individuals and the Microdata file contains questionnaire responses and associated information from 25,090 respondents.

GSS Cycle 14 was not designed to be a survey of households, so questions such as A1: Is your household connected to the Internet?, and M1: In what type of dwelling are you now living? should be used to estimate the number of persons who live in households connected to the Internet or the number of persons who live in a particular type of dwelling. For example, to estimate the number of persons who live in low-rise apartments, WGHT_PER should be summed over all WGHT_PER:

Related data:

General social surveys
Questionnaire comparability chart: HIUS 1997-2000, GSS 12 & 14, HIFE 1997

Status: