The Survey of Household Spending: A new source for Canadian cell-only penetration rates
MRIA Standards Committee
As Marketing Researchers we are well aware of the need to ensure our sample frames are as representative as possible and to minimize any coverage error. This task has been increasingly more difficult for researchers conducting research through RDD as the proportion of the Canadian population discarding their landlines continues to grow.
Canadian penetration rates were previously tracked by Statistics Canada as part of their Residential Telephone Service Study (RTSS), however, this study was discontinued in December 2013. Recognizing the importance of this information, in 2014 Statistics Canada added information on cell-only penetration to their national Survey of Household Spending (SHS). The SHS is a robust survey with a sample size of approximately 1/5th of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which is used as a key component for Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI). Data is obtained through a stratified two-stage cluster sample design and measures the 10 provinces as well as the capitals of the three territories. The survey is conducted over a 12-month period and estimates are released annually. Statistics Canada estimates the national Coefficient of Variation (CV) at 0.8% with a frame coverage error of approximately 0.5%.
The most recent SHS, 2015, reports that 27.5% of households have only a cell-phone and no landline. This is up significantly, 3.8 percentage points, from the 2014 estimate of 23.7%. This sort of rapid growth was observed in the US between 2010 and 2014 where the US cell-phone penetration rate, according to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), increased from 26.6% to 45.4% (Figure 1). With the rapid growth being currently observed in Canada, researchers are encouraged to track this data closely and adjust their telephone frames as needed.
Figure 1. Canadian and US cell-only penetration rates. Sources: US data - National Health Interview Survey, Canadian data – Statistics Canada Residential Telephone Service Survey (up to 2013) and Survey of Household Spending (2014 and 2015).
Provincial estimates of cell-only households vary significantly (Figure 2). The lowest penetration rate is in New Brunswick where it is only 14.4% of households. The highest penetration rate is in Alberta where 34.6% of households are cell-only. Given that telephony is highly correlated to age, one would expect that the penetration rates are considerably higher for households with younger individuals aged 18-34.
Figure 2. Cell-only penetration rates by province. Source: SHS.