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Business & Economics Statistics

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Key Databases

The following are databases recommended for finding data and statistics in the areas of Business and Economics

Statistics and their uses

Statistics are used to:

  • provide a description
    • answering the question about the scale or scope of something observable and its characteristics
  • make a comparison
    • establishing the degree of similarity or dissimilarity among observables
  • identify a relationship
    • looking at the correlation among characteristics of observables; how things are related

Assessing Statistics

Attributes that you should be looking for when evaluating your statistics:

  1. Relevence
    - How does the statistic reflect the needs of its clients and user
  2. Accuracy
    - Does the statistic accurately define the phenomenon that it was trying to measure?
  3. Timeliness
    - How long is the delay between the data gathering phase and the publishing phase?
  4. Accessibility
    - How findable is the statistic? Is it behind a pay wall?
  5. Interpretability
    - How much available documentation comes with the statistic? Definition? Data gathering methodology?
  6. Coherence
    - Does the statistic successfully verify similiar surveys?

Finding Statistics

Finding statistics is not easy.  There are generally two approaches, which are often used in combination with each other.

Publisher Strategy: identify an organization that would produce and publish such a statistic. Knowledge of government structure, areas of jurisdication and context is key.

Data Strategy: identify a data source from which the statistics were derived.

image credit: Chuck Humphrey, Data Library Coordinator, University of Alberta

 

Official Statistics: produced by government bodies (such as Statistics Canada) and some international or inter-governmental agencies (such as the U.N.)

Non-Offical Statistics: produced by other bodies, including trade associations, professional organizations, banks, consultants, marketing companies, academic institutions, etc

Types of Statistics

Statistical Types
Surveys Administrative Records
  • Census
  • Labour Force Survey
  • General Social Survey
  • National Household Survey
  • Aboriginal Peoples Survey
  • etc....
  • Vital Statistics
  • Hospital Morbidity
  • Crime Reports
  • Court Reports
  • Income Statistics
  • etc...

 

Surveys: deliberately requested information.

Administrative Records: statistics generated by doing regular business

Canadian Statistics

Key Canadian Statistics

Business and Economic Statistical Sources by Subject

  • daily rates for the past 60 days; weekly rates for the past 60 weeks; monthly rates for the past 60 months, downloadable.
  • Bank Rate, prime rate, mortgage, GIC's, etc. changes, 10+ years, downloadable.
  • select Treasury Bills Yields to obtain daily, weekly and monthly yields for 1 month, 3 month, 6 month and 1 year bills.
  • click on Selected Historical Interest Rates for monthly bank rates (1935 - ) and average yields for 3- (Mr.1934- ) and 6-month (May 1959- ) treasury bill auctions (pdfs).
  • search for "interest rates" as an exact phrase.

- Banks release statements/reports on economic forecast

Provincial Statistics

Local Statistics

International

International Resources

Open Data

What is Open Data?

Open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone - subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike.

Open Data characteristics:

  • Availability and Access: the data must be available as a whole and at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably by downloading over the internet. The data must also be available in a convenient and modifiable form.
  • Reuse and Redistribution: the data must be provided under terms that permit reuse and redistribution including the intermixing with other datasets.
  • Universal Participation: everyone must be able to use, reuse and redistribute - there should be no discrimination against fields of endeavour or against persons or groups. For example, ‘non-commercial’ restrictions that would prevent ‘commercial’ use, or restrictions of use for certain purposes (e.g. only in education), are not allowed.

Source: Open Data Handbook. (2012). What is Open Data? — Open Data Handbook. Retrieved February 26, 2015, from http://opendatahandbook.org/en/what-is-open-data/

Open Data Sources

Municipal/Provincial

Federal

International

DLI

Survey Products

Some of the following statistical sources are available only through the TRU Library's DLI / Data Services Librarian Browse DLI survey products and descriptions on the Statistics Canada DLI website.

Statistical Software Resources