Microdata Analysis with Python using Statistics Canada Data

Want to learn how to work with rich Canadian survey data? The Public Use Microdata File (PUMF) from Statistics Canada offers detailed microdata from national sample surveys—perfect for uncovering meaningful insights.

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to access, manage, and analyze PUMF datasets. Through practical exercises, you’ll explore statistical techniques and develop skills to interpret and present your findings effectively.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

Access and navigate Statistics Canada’s PUMF datasets

Manage microdata for analysis using common tools

Apply basic statistical methods to extract insights

Interpret and communicate results from survey data

This workshop is ideal for students, faculty, staff, and community members interested in exploring national data.

Workshop Preparation

McMaster participants will use their MacID to login to McMaster’s Jupiter Notebook instance. Non-McMaster participants must have a tool (such as Google Colab, Kaggle Notebooks, PyCharm, Spyder etc.) ready on their system to write Python code.

Facilitator Bio

Vivek Jadon (he/him) provides research support in the use of numeric research data. As part of his role, Vivek is McMaster University’s official representative for Statistics Canada’s Data Liberation Initiative (DLI) program and Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). Both of these programs provide researchers with vast archive of research data from various disciplines for high quality research and instruction. Vivek is also involved in building awareness and promoting RDM activities/services at McMaster.

Workshop Slides

Coming soon.

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