Household Expenditure Potential

Household Expenditure Potential (HEP) from EA provides estimates of average annual expenditures for a wide range of goods and services for Canadian households for small areas – Dissemination Areas (DA) of Statistics Canada. This product is used to estimate spending behaviour of Canadians at any geographic level, from Canada down to a small retail trade area. The data include both average dollars per household and total dollars, and they relate to the residential addresses of households.

The smallest geographical unit for which the data are available and were derived in the Dissemination Area (DA). There are 52,993 DAs in Canada, with number of households in a DA generally ranging between 250 and 450. The data were derived from the Statistics Canada “Survey of Household Spending” for 2003. Household expenditure estimates are available for 239 categories of goods and services; see the separate list of variables that accompanies this documentation. This release relates to the year 2006. The consumption propensities come from the latest Statistics Canada survey but all of the other ingredients in HEP including households and incomes relate to the current year 2006.

The HEP database is based upon Statistics Canada's Survey of Household Spending (SHS) 2003 survey - the most recent survey available at the time EA did this research in spring of 2005. More than 24,000 pseudo-randomly selected private households across all Provinces and Territories were asked detailed questions on their spending patterns. These data are collected annually by Statistics Canada for a number of purposes including the estimation of the consumer price index. The survey is very well designed and controlled and is very highly respected for its rigour and reliability. The SHS has for a number of years replaced its long standing predecessor at Statistics Canada - which was called the Family Expenditure Survey (FAMEX).

Pricing

Prices shown are in Canadian Dollars
 

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