10 tidbits about Canadians we learned from StatsCan today

Statistics Canada released the second batch of figures Wednesday from its voluntary National Household Survey, looking at labour, education, workplace, commuting, work language and mobility and migration.

Some highlights:

Higher learning

• 64.8 per cent of working-age women now have a post-secondary education, compared with 63.4 per cent of men — the first time the percentage for women has bypassed that for men.
• Women accounted for 59 per cent of Canadians aged 25 to 34 with a university degree, compared with 47.3 per cent of their 55- to 64-year-old counterparts.
• Read more about education trends in Canada

Employment data

• The most common occupations for women in 2011: retail salesperson; administrative assistant; registered nurse; cashier; schoolteacher. The most common occupations for men: retail salesperson; truck driver; retail and wholesale manager; carpenter; janitor, caretaker and building superintendent.
• Canada had more than three million workers aged 55 and over in 2011, comprising 18.7 per cent of total employment, compared with 15.5 per cent in 2006.
• Employment rates were highest in Yukon (69.7 per cent), N.W.T. (66.8 per cent) and the Prairies, particularly Alberta (69 per cent) and Saskatchewan (65.1 per cent). Rates were lowest in Newfoundland and Labrador (50.7 per cent) and Nunavut (52.1 per cent).

Daily commute

• Roughly 15.4 million Canadians said they commute to work each day, with three out of four driving a vehicle and just 5.6 per cent making the trip as passengers. The data also said 1.1 million people work from home.
• Public transit was used by 12 per cent of commuters, up from 11 per cent in 2006. Of those, 63.5 per cent took a bus, 25 per cent rode the subway or elevated-rail train, 11.2 per cent took light-rail transit, streetcar or commuter train, and 0.3 per cent travelled by ferry.
• About 880,000 commuters, or 5.7 per cent, reported walking to work each day, while only 201,800 people —1.3 per cent — rode a bicycle, the same percentage as in 2006.
• Read more about the daily commute in Canada

First Nations and higher learning

• Among Aboriginal Peoples aged 25 to 64, 48.4 per cent had some sort of post-secondary education, the majority a trades certificate or college diploma. Almost 10 per cent reported having a university degree, compared with 26.5 per cent of the non-aboriginal population.
• Nearly 29 per cent of Aboriginal Peoples in the same age group reported no post-secondary education, compared with 12.1 per cent of the non-aboriginal group.