Current Developments in Small-Area Estimation at Statistics Canada

• Activity Number: 650
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 5, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Michel Arsene Hidiroglou*+
• Companies: Statistics Canada
• Keywords: small area estimation ; models ; flexible system ; diagnostic tools ; area level ; unit level

Abstract

The demand for small area estimation has been steadily increasing. We present how small area procedures were applied to a business survey, a health survey, and a household survey. Custom made small area techniques as well as computer programs were used. Since there is a need for small area estimates on across many surveys, we are developing a flexible small area system that will begin to address the needs of producing small area estimates in production. Basic requirements of such a system includes: the type of procedure used, area level or unit level based; incorporating the sampling design in the estimation of both primary statistics and secondary statistics; smoothing within and between variance components (part of the small area procedures); ensuring that estimates of totals add up to reliable higher level estimates; and developing diagnostic tools to test the adequacy of model.