Muskeg Press

A few weeks ago, Statistics Canada released data from the 2011 census concerning the age of the country’s population. In general, Canada’s getting older. But what about Prince Rupert?

Using the data from the census, we made two population pyramids, below. The one of the left shows the age data for Prince Rupert, the one on the right for Canada. They show the percentage of people by gender within 18 age cohorts. So, for example, the bottom bar in the Prince Rupert pyramid shows that 6.3 per cent of the male population is between the ages of 0-4, and 6.6 per cent of the female population is between the ages of 0-4.

While Canada’s pyramid shows a bulge in middle age (from 45-59 years old), Rupert’s shows two bulges: one for teenagers & young adults (10-24 years old), and one for middle-aged people & seniors (45-64). In either case, those bulges are bigger than the national average.

Click on the graph below for a larger image.

Recently, the government of Canada announced sweeping changes to the Employment Insurance program. While these changes have not yet taken effect, we thought it would be interesting to find out how many people would be affected by these changes.

Below is a graph showing the proportion of the population on income assistance in selected areas around B.C. from 2005 until March, 2012. The data show the percentage of adults on EI on a quarterly basis (March, June, September, December). For this graph, we selected Rupert, as well as a few other northern communities. We also compared these small-town numbers to a big city, Vancouver.

The source of the data is B.C. Stats. If you’re curious about other areas, check out its website for more information.

Click on the image below for a larger version of the graph.

The federal budget was released a few weeks ago, and it is still being parsed by media outlets, who are mostly telling the stories of upcoming job losses due to cuts to the public service.

These stories are no doubt important, but do not answer a more important question: what words appear most frequently in the budget? So, we decided to find out.

The chart below shows how often certain words, represented by vertical tick marks ( | ), appear in the budget. We tried to make a list of words that mirror some of the bigger issues being discussed, especially in the Northwest. We also threw in some other words for comparison’s sake, such as the nouns from the budget’s subtitle, “Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity.” We found it curious that these three words (jobs, growth, prosperity), appeared a total of 562 times, while the word “tax” appeared 1,333 times. We also found it strange that, with all the media attention focused on job cuts at the CBC, the phrase “Canadian Broadcasting Corporation” appears only once in the budget.

At any rate, the words are ranked from fewest appearances to most. And, in case you’re wondering, the word “and” appears 4,524 times, while “the” appears 10,006 times.

Appearances of certain words in Canadian 2012 federal budget

Source: Canada. Department of Finance. Budget 2012: Jobs, Growth & Long-term Prosperity.

The graph below shows per capita spending on various types of liquor for the first three months of 2011. In other words, it shows how much, on average, individuals spent on booze across Canada from January-March last year.

The dollar figures show revenues by what Statistics Canada calls “liquor authorities and their agents” (which we suspect means “liquor stores”), as well as wineries and breweries. This would include any sales by liquor stores to bars & restaurants; but it would not include sales by bars & restaurants to the consumers. The revenues do not include totals from you-brews, duty-free shops, or bootleggers. Statistics Canada also cautions that this should NOT be read as an indication on consumption; although, in our opinion, if you’re going to spend money on booze, you’ll probably drink it.

At any rate, beer remains the choice of Canadians, and leads sales in every province except the Northwest Territories. Wine is increasing in stature across the country, but spirits remain the second-most-popular drink of choice for Maritimers, and most of the Western provinces. Only in Quebec, Ontario and B.C. do wine sales surpass spirits.

Click on the graph for a larger image.

Last week, Statistics Canada released data on voter turnout by age in the 2011 Canadian federal election. So, we decided to take that information and apply it to past elections.

The graph below shows the change in percentage of voter turnout for each age group in Canada. For example, the turnout for voters aged 18-34 was 37.4% in 2008 — 6.4 percentage points lower than 2006. That difference is shown in the blue bar in the “2006-2008″ column.

The 2008 election, by the way, holds the record for lowest turnout in a Canadian federal election. Things got a bit better in 2011.

Sources: Elections Canada, Statistics Canada

In honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee, we’ve crafted a graph showing the lives of her Canadian prime ministers over the course of her reign from 1952 to the present day.

The life of each prime minister is in grey, and the coloured bands denote the years of their terms as the nation’s leaders (red for Liberal, blue for Conservative). The chevrons on either end of the row denote whether or not the prime minister was still living on either end of the spectrum from 1952-2012.

Only one prime minister on the graph below — Stephen Harper — was born after the queen ascended to the throne.

Click anywhere on the graph to see a larger image.

According to B.C. Stats, Prince Rupert’s population in 2011 was estimated to be 12,935 — a drop of 0.4% from 2010, when the population was estimated to be 12,990. We were making our way up to 13,000 and then, well, we dropped down 55 people. Still, our estimated population for 2011 was higher than 2007 (12,907) and 2008 (12,832), but lower than 2006 (13,072).

We should probably emphasize that these are estimates, which calculate the population from July 1 to June 30 (e.g. the most recent estimate is from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011). How are these estimates made? We’ll let the good folks at B.C. Stats explain it themselves:

B.C. Stats produces sub-provincial population estimates using the Generalized Estimation System on an annual basis. This regression model uses symptomatic indicators like health registrations and residential hydro hook-ups to gauge population growth from one year to the next.

~B.C. Stats, Infoline Report, January 20, 2012, p.3

We’ll get a more accurate picture of our population once the national census results for 2011 are released on February 8. Until then, we’ve used the data from B.C. Stats to create a graph showing populations over the last six years at randomly-selected places in the North.

Source: B.C. Stats.

For some reason, we’ve been hearing a lot about Rupert’s unemployment rate lately, and how it compares to the provincial average. We decided to look into the region’s unemployment and how it compares to B.C. overall.

The graph below shows data accessed via B.C. Stats. The provincial agency releases a monthly snapshot of unemployment in a bunch of different areas across the province; the region that applies to Rupert is “North Coast/Nechako,” which stretches from Haida Gwaii to Vanderhoof. While that’s a giant geographical area, it gives some sort of idea of what unemployment looks like, especially when taken over the long term.

As you’ll see in the graph below, the provincial unemployment rate has consistently been lower than the regional rate, except for a few months of the spring and summer earlier this year. Also, after a huge divergence from December 2009 to September 2010, the two rates got much closer to each other, where they mostly remain today.

In case you’re wondering, the provincial unemployment rate for November 2011 was 6.3 per cent, and the regional unemployment rate was 7.7 per cent. Click on the graph below for a larger version.

Source: B.C. Stats

In light of the recent news that B.C. Ferries’ passenger rates have dropped by some of their highest levels over the past few years, we decided to take a look at how many passengers have boarded over the last few years.

The graph below shows the total number of passengers who boarded on the Northern routes — either on the Prince Rupert to Haida Gwaii run, or on the Inside Passage route — since May 2009. Keep in mind that August is always the busiest month, and B.C. Ferries obviously has not released that data yet for 2011.

Total passengers on Northern routes, May 2009 – July 2011

Source: B.C. Ferries. Traffic Statistics. Available here.

As Rupert goes through its umpteenth day of overcast skies with intermittent rain and cold temperatures, our friends in Eastern Canada are living through a major heatwave.

But it seems the east has been seeing higher temperatures than the west for many years now. A few weeks ago, Statistics Canada released a report called Human Activity and the Environment. One of the tables in that report, compiled from data by Environment Canada, showed 2010 was the warmest year on record nationally since 1948. In the eastern regions, such as Atlantic Canada and the Northeastern Forest, 2010 was also the warmest on record; when things get to the Prairies, however, 2010 was the 23rd-warmest year on record since 1948.

The graph below shows how 2010 temperatures by Canadian region differed from the average temperature from 1948-2010. For example, Atlantic Canada’s average temperature in 2010 was 2.1 degrees warmer than the long-term average (from 1948-2010). One column to the right, the Great Lakes region was 1.9 degrees warmer than the average.

The data show that temperatures in Eastern Canada are warmer than the averages in Western Canada. But the hot spot in Canada turns out to be the north, which saw much warmer temperatures than either the East or West.

For the map showing the various regions, click here. Prince Rupert falls in the “Pacific Coast” region.

Source: Environment Canada, Meteorological Services of Canada, Climate Research Branch, 2011, Climate Trends and Variations Bulletin for Canada, Annual 2010.