Search

Leaving the parental home to live independently has long been a marker of one's transition to adulthood and a sign of immigrant adaptation to the host country. The timing and pathways of home-leaving are important for both the housing trajectories of young adults and the overall housing demand of immigrant receiving areas. However, young adults--immigrants or not--have increasingly been delaying this transition, opting instead to stay in the parental home for an extended period of time. In this paper, we conceptualize home-leaving as a decision made over time--influenced by individual, family, and contextual factors--and use panel data collected in the 2011 and 2017 Canadian General Social Survey (GSS). Through both a Cox proportional hazard model and a competing risk model, we examine the timing of exit from the parental home, the determinants of this exit, and the variable rates of independent household formation across immigrant, non-visible, and visible minority groups. We find, although the relationship is not always linear, generational status, as well as race and ethnicity, play an important role in not only the timing, but also the destination of home leaving, while age at arrival is particularly salient for racialized immigrant groups. Young immigrants of visible minority background are generally less likely to leave their parental home, even though immigrants to Canada are selected for their ability to succeed in Canada. Quitter le domicile parental pour vivre en autonomie a longtemps ete un marqueur de passage a l'age adulte et un signe d'adaptation des immigrants au pays d'accueil. Le moment et les parcours du depart a la maison ce sont tous importants pour les trajectoires de logement des jeunes adultes et aussi pour la demande globale de logements des zones d'accueil des immigrants. Toutefois, les jeunes adultes, immigres ou non, retardent de plus en plus cette transition, optant plutot pour un sejour prolonge chez leurs parents. Dans cet article, nous conceptualisons le depart du domicile comme une decision prise au fil du temps, influencee par des facteurs individuels, familiaux et contextuels et utilisons des donnees de panel recueillies dans le cadre de l'Enquete sociale generale (ESG) canadienne de 2011 et 2017. Utiliser le modele de Cox a risques instantanes proportionnels et d'un modele a risques concurrents, nous examinons le moment de la sortie du domicile parental, les determinants de ces sorties et les taux variables de formation de menages independants parmi les groupes d'immigrants, non visibles et de minorites visibles. Nous trouvons que, bien que la relation ne soit pas toujours lineaire, le statut des generations, ainsi que la race et l'origine ethnique, jouent un role important non seulement sur le moment, mais aussi dans la destination du depart, tandis que l'age a l'arrivee est particulierement saillant pour les groupes d'immigrants racialises. Les jeunes immigrants issus de minorites visibles sont generalement moins susceptibles de quitter le domicile de leurs parents, alors meme que les immigrants au Canada sont selectionnes en fonction de leur capacite a reussir au Canada., INTRODUCTION Living with parents, a once derided living arrangement for young adults, is becoming an increasingly prevalent social norm. In Canada, 42% of young adults aged 20-29 lived with their [...]

Poverty continues to burden millions of Canadians each year, and social assistance (SA) is one program that provides last-resort financial assistance, conditional upon looking for and accepting work. Using tax panel data of SA recipients from across seven Canadian regions between 2000 and 2018, we model the probabilities of employment success (ES) across industry of employment, SA benefit amounts, unionization, and individual-level characteristics. We adopt an economic stance to explain reliance upon SA, examining the broader macroeconomic indicators of ES, and to demonstrate the factors associated with exiting SA. We find that many SA recipients do not present evidence of recent employment, indicating a disconnect between stated SA program aims and their outcomes. We provide evidence for increased SA benefits and unionization as significant predictors of ES of SA recipients. La pauvrete continue de peser sur des millions de Canadiens chaque annee, et l'aide sociale (AS) est un programme qui fournit une aide financiere de dernier recours, a condition de chercher et d'accepter un emploi. A l'aide de donnees fiscales de panel sur les beneficiaires de l'aide sociale de sept regions canadiennes entre 2000 et 2018, nous modelisons les probabilites de reussite professionnelle en fonction du secteur d'emploi, du montant des prestations d'aide sociale, de la syndicalisation et des caracteristiques individuelles. Nous adoptons une position economique pour expliquer le recours a l'AS, en examinant les indicateurs macroeconomiques plus larges de la reussite professionnelle, et pour demontrer les facteurs associes a la sortie de l'AS. Nous constatons que de nombreux beneficiaires de l'AS ne presentent pas de preuve d'emploi recent, ce qui indique un decalage entre les objectifs declares du programme d'AS et leurs resultats. Nous fournissons des preuves que l'augmentation des prestations d'AS et la syndicalisation sont des predicteurs importants de la reussite de l'emploi des beneficiaires de l'AS., INTRODUCTION Social assistance (SA) is an essential service that lies at the heart of any welfare state (Esping-Andersen, 2013; Kenworthy, 2011). The goal of short-term financial programs such as SA [...]

This paper explores some of the implications that administrative data, defined as data initially collected for purposes other than research, will have for Sociology. Although administrative data are 'found' rather than 'made' and, in turn, pose several challenges, we argue that the potential of these data warrant the investment, and may lead to a new methodological imagination that can shed a light on time-tested concepts and advance our understanding of society. We show that it is already possible to advance several sociological debates through the use of administrative data and demonstrate the potential of these data through some examples drawn from classical sociological theory. We conclude by arguing that administrative data's potential will likely ensure that it becomes an important component of sociological research agendas in the coming years. Cet article explore certaines des implications que les donnees administratives--definies comme des donnees initialement collectees a des fins autres que la recherche--auront pour la sociologie. Quoique les donnees administratives soient << trouvees >> plutot que << faites >> et, a leur tour, posent plusieurs defis, nous soutenons que le potentiel de ces donnees justifie l'investissement et peut conduire a une nouvelle imagination methodologique, une qui peut mettre en lumiere des concepts durables sociologiques et avancer notre comprehension de la societe. Nous montrons qu'il est deja possible de faire avancer plusieurs debats sociologiques avec lutilisation de donnees administratives, et nous demontrons le potentiel de ces donnees a travers quelques exemples tires de la theorie sociologique classique. Nous concluons en affirmant que le potentiel des donnees administratives garantira probablement qu'elles deviendront une composante importante des recherches sociologiques a venir., INTRODUCTION Over the past few decades, the information landscape for social science has changed dramatically with the availability of big data. In the Canadian context, there are over 30 series [...]

Race-based and other demographic information on COVID-19 patients is not being collected consistently across provinces in Canada. Therefore, whether the burden of COVID-19 is falling disproportionately on the shoulders of particular demographic groups is relatively unknown. In this article, we first provide an overview of the available geographic and demographic data related to COVID-19. We then make creative use of these existing data to fill the vacuum and identify key demographic risk factors for COVID-19 across Canada's health regions. Drawing on COVID-19 counts and tabular census data, we examine the association between communities' demographic composition and the number of COVID-19 infections. COVID-19 infections are higher in communities with larger shares of Black and low-income residents. Our approach offers a way for researchers and policymakers to use existing data to identify communities nationwide that are vulnerable to the pandemic in the absence of more detailed demographic and more granular geographic data. Les renseignements fondes sur la race et d'autres donnees demographiques sur les patients atteints du COVID-19 ne sont pas recueillis de maniere uniforme dans toutes les provinces du Canada. Par consequent, si le fardeau du COVID-19 tombe de maniere disproportionnee sur les epaules de groupes demographiques particuliers est relativement inconnu. Dans cet article, nous fournissons d'abord un apercu des donnees geographiques et demographiques disponibles liees au COVID-19. Nous utilisons ensuite de maniere creative ces donnees existantes pour combler le vide et identifier les principaux facteurs de risque demographiques du COVID-19 dans les regions sociosanitaires du Canada. En nous basant sur les denombrements de COVID-19 et les donnees tabulaires du recensement, nous examinons l'association entre la composition demographique des communautes et le nombre d'infections au COVID-19. Les infections au COVID-19 sont plus elevees dans les communautes avec une plus grande proportion de residents Noirs et a faible revenu. Notre approche offre aux chercheurs et aux decideurs un moyen d'utiliser les donnees existantes pour identifier les communautes a l'echelle nationale qui sont vulnerables a la pandemie en l'absence de donnees demographiques plus detaillees et geographiques plus granulaires., INTRODUCTION The global novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been raging for more than one year. In Canada, an initial wave emerged in mid-March, and by mid-April, there were [...]

The contrasting social and economic inequalities that exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples has been the focus of many Canadian studies. Several interlinking factors have been found to impact the socioeconomic status of Canada's Indigenous peoples, including social distance, education, gender, and occupational characteristics. Few of these studies, however, look at the gender wage gap amongst Indigenous populations, and in this paper, we identify some of the factors that drive both income and differences in income between men and women, amongst Indigenous peoples. Using data from the 2017 Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS), we examine key socioeconomic factors and identify how these are linked to income. We find that education and employment industry are major indicators of socioeconomic status, as are the interactions between gender and income. We also find a persistent gender wage gap amongst Canada's Indigenous peoples, but we find that this gap can be explained by differences in the returns to education, skill levels, and industry of employment. Keywords: Aboriginal Canadians, income, education, stratification. Plusieurs études canadiennes se sont penchées sur les inégalités sociales et économiques contrastées entre les peuples autochtones et non-autochtones. Quelques facteurs interdépendants ont été trouvés pour influencer le statut socio-économique des peuples autochtones du Canada, ainsi que la distance sociale, l'éducation, le sexe et les caractéristiques professionnels. Certains de ces études n'ont cependant pas mis l'accent sur l'écart salarial entre les hommes et les femmes de la population autochtone et, dans cet article, nous avons identifié non seulement les facteurs qui déterminent le revenu, mais aussi les facteurs de différence entre les revenus des hommes et ceux des femmes dans la communauté autochtone. En nous servant des données de Aboriginal Peoples Survey 2017 (APS), nous examinons les principaux facteurs socio-économiques et identifions comment ceux-ci sont liés au revenu. Nous postulons que l'éducation et l'industrie de l'emploi sont des indicateurs majeurs du statut socio-économique, tout comme les interactions entre les hommes, les femmes et le revenu. Nous notons aussi un écart salarial persistant entre hommes et femmes de la population autochtone du Canada, mais trouvons que cet écart peut s'expliquer par des différences dans les rendements de l'éducation, des niveaux de compétence et de l'industrie de l'emploi. Mots-clés : Canadiens autochtones, le revenu, l'éducation, la stratification., INTRODUCTION Previous research studies analyze the income gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations (De Silva 1999; George and Kuhn 1994; Mueller 2004; Pendakur and Pendakur 2011), but few examine the [...]

Brain drain is an increasingly important concern for local governments in northern communities in Canada in maintaining and enhancing human capital levels to sustain vibrant economies and communities. Researchers, however, have yet to examine the magnitude of north-south out-migration nor do we know the characteristics of youth who are likely to relocate. Our study contributes to this knowledge gap by employing multiple waves from Statistics Canada's Youth in Transition Survey (Cohort A) linked to each youth's reading scores from the Programme for International Student Assessment (measured at age 15), and longitudinally to their tax filer information until age 30 (T1 Family Files). La fuite des cerveaux est une preoccupation de plus en plus importante pour les gouvemements locaux des collectivites du Nord du Canada dans le maintien et ['amelioration des niveaux de capital humain afin de soutenir des economies et des collectivites dynamiques. Toutefois, les chercheurs n'ont pas encore examine l'ampleur de l'emigration nord-sud et nous ne connaissons pas non plus les caracteristiques des jeunes susceptibles de demenager. Notre etude contribue k ce manque de connaissances en utilisant de multiples ondes de l'Enquete sur les jeunes en transition (cohorte A) de Statistique Canada liees aux resultats de lecture de chaque jeune du Programme international de lecture du suivi des eleves (mesures d l'age de 15 ans), et longitudinalement a leurs informations de declarant jusqu'd l'age 30 (T1 Family Files)., BRAIN DRAIN--THE LOSS of highly trained or educated individuals from a region--is a concern for northern communities in Canada. The loss of young people from northern to southern, urban centers [...]

AbstractHomeownership is a primary aspiration for many immigrants to Canada, and although copious literature follows the progression of newer arrivals, much less research focuses on the success levels of their children, particularly those born in Canada. In this article, we look at the homeownership rates of second-generation Black, Chinese, South Asian, and White Immigrants, comparing them to each other and their first-generation counterparts. We find significant differences across groups but striking similarities between first and second-generation immigrants from the same racialized groups. This suggests that race-based ‘homeownership hierarchies’ are durable and cannot be fully explained by factors associated with immigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing body of sociological research explores the complexity of intimate partner violence (IPV) in heterosexual relationships. However, early research in this area concentrated exclusively on male perpetration, thereby necessitating a better understanding of the contexts behind female-perpetrated and bidirectional IPV. Using the two most recent cycles of the Canadian General Social Survey (2014 and 2019), our study employs a multinomial logistic regression model to examine the prevalence and severity of female and male physical IPV victimization among a large sample of married and common-law heterosexual couples. Framing our analysis through one concentric level of Dutton's (1990) nested ecological model, the exosystem, we aim to understand whether these indicators serve as protective markers against severe and nonsevere physical IPV. We investigate the impact of eight exosystem indicators (financial stress, number of children, length of relationship, religiosity, employment, social support, education, and income). Our findings suggest that social support, employment, and household income serve as protective markers against male and female physical IPV victimization. Other protective factors include the length of the relationship and the partner's religiosity for female-perpetrated violence. At the same time, the presence of children in the household reduces the likelihood of male-perpetrated IPV despite being a risk marker for female perpetration. Risk factors for both men and women include education and their partner's employment. Future research should undertake a more in-depth exploration of the impact of exosystem and macrosystem factors on instances of IPV to generate a better understanding of predictive and preventative measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines trades-related and university educational attainment (by age 25) of immigrant and Canadian-born Alberta youth while controlling for gender, family socio-economic status, high school grades, and parental encouragement regarding higher education. Data from the longitudinal Alberta School-Work Transitions Study (1996-2003) reveal significant differences between immigrants and non-immigrant young adults in terms of trades-related post-secondary education (PSE). Multinomial logit analysis shows that Alberta immigrant youth are significantly more likely than their Canadian-born counterparts to attain trades-related PSE credentials by age 25. Important factors explaining these differences include parental encouragement and high school grades.

In recent years, temporary foreign workers (TFWs) have not only played an important role in filling Canada’s labour shortages and advancing Canada’s broad economic and cultural interests but are also seen as a large source of permanent residents admitted to Canada. TFWs come to Canada through various work permit categories under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the International Mobility Program (IMP). This research uses the 2019 Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) to examine the factors that predict the transition rates of TFWs admitted to Canada between 2005 and 2014. The results of this study show that the five-year cumulative transition rates of TFWs are strongly associated with their work permit categories. Further, this study reveals that age, skill level, and initial destinations significantly affect the transition rates of TFWs in Canada. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for economic immigration policy and make suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the fastest changing component of housing demand in the future—the immigrant and minority groups, age 25–84. Using the 2006 and 2016 Canadian censuses and American Community Surveys, we compare headship and homeownership rates of both immigrants and native-born Whites in Canada and the United States. We model the probability of being a renter head, owner head, or nonhousehold head by fitting a multinomial logistic regression, controlling for several individual and contextual variables for both countries. We find that most immigrant groups have had similar patterns of household formation in the two countries and that, whereas immigrants have shown upward mobility in both housing markets, those in Canada have progressed more quickly than in the United States. Further, we find that women are less likely than men to be a household head in both countries, but that the gap is larger in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upon migrating to a new country, immigrants will often turn to their ethnic communities for support, forming bonding social ties in the process. However, there are also those who form bridging ties by reaching outside of one's immediate ethnic group. The social position occupied by individuals in society is maintained and reproduced by the cultural and human capital they possess, wherein the socialised dispositions, conceptions, and level of education unite and differentiate social groups. As a result, immigrant network formation occurs not only on the lines of ethnicity, but also on cultural and human capital. In this paper, we use the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada to investigate how immigrants use social ties upon arrival to Canada. We find that newcomers with lower levels of human capital will be more likely to bond, whereas higher human capital newcomers will often bridge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roger Tarling, Statistical Modelling for Social Researchers: Principles and Practices. Series: Social Research Today. New York: Routledge, 2008, 224 pp. $US 57.95 (978-0415-44840-6), $US 150.00 hardcover (978-0-7890-3788-6) Part of a [...]

This article studies the link between observed demographic changes and Canadian inter-provincial migration declines. Alongside recent changes in age composition, educational attainment, marital trends, and immigration, Canadian internal migration has widely been in decline. In this context, our project investigates the demographic determinants of Canadian provincial migration and the correlation between Canada's socio-demographic shifts and the decline of inter-provincial migration. To do so, our analysis consists of two identical multivariate logistic regressions and an econometric decomposition using the data of the 1991 and 2016 Canadian Census Public Use Microdata Files. The dependent variable is inter-provincial migration, and the focal independent variables are age, educational attainment, marital status, immigrant status, and province of residence five years ago. By investigating how these determinants are associated with migration, we develop a greater understanding of how demographics predict inter-provincial migration in Canada, and how these demographics have changed and affected the overall decline in inter-provincial migration. In a broad sense, we examine the continuity of contemporary demographic trends in their relation to Canadian macro-economic human capital distribution. Through our investigation, we conclude that while compositional changes have some impact, it is a shift in the effects of these changes that largely explains the decline in Canadian inter-provincial migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working without fixity, while historically prevalent, has been on the rise in Canada and throughout the world due to processes associated with advanced capitalism. Moreover, it implies mobility to, from, and within work, which in a time of COVID-19, is problematic for workers and communities alike. In this paper, we argue that our pre-COVID statistical knowledge of workers without a fixed place of work in Canada is inadequate. Using the best source of available data--the 2016 Census--we provide a thorough account of these workers as compared to those with a set place of work. We find that most individuals without a fixed workplace are male, have low income, are likely to be self-employed, have a higher proportion of employment insurance (EI) and self-employment income, and have college or on-the-job training skill levels. They are also likely to live in rural areas, and work in the construction or transportation industry. We argue that documenting which workers are most likely to be working without fixity is necessary to understand how a COVID-19 world will play out for these workers and their communities as the pandemic continues and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrant parents report better opportunities for their children as the rationale for moving internationally. Residential mobility is associated with poorer outcomes for school‐age children. Many immigrant families prioritise child opportunities in their mobility decisions, especially those with school‐age children. These families may refrain from moving within the destination country to avoid such outcomes. Whether or not this is true is unknown because researchers have not examined how children's age shapes immigrant families' decisions to move within the host country. We link administrative immigration and income tax files with census data to examine how the age of the oldest child influences immigrant families' decisions to move after they immigrate. Immigrant families with school‐age children are less likely to move than those with younger children. Although the presence of older children deters migration for all immigrant families, those in immigrant gateways are more likely to move relative to those living in nongateways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Canada has been not only welcoming growing numbers of temporary foreign workers (TFWs), but also, increasingly, creating pathways that allow workers and their families to become permanent residents. In this paper, we use a series of unique longitudinal files to study the factors that predict a TFW's transition to permanence. We find that age, sex, skill level and duration as a temporary resident are all important factors for understanding who obtains legal residency in Canada, but that source country wealth is not. We discuss the implications of our findings and make suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction serves several purposes. First, it provides some context around the phenomenon of Employment-Related Geographical Mobility. Second, it introduces the papers included in this Special Issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction is an important employer in all developed countries, which bolsters the local and global economy. The construction industry is responsible for creating structure that improve productivity and quality of life not only in Canada but also in other developed and developing countries. Although considerable research exists on important facets of the industry (including education, skills and training; precarious work; migration and labour mobility; gender, working-time and work-life balance), few studies look at how the labour force has changed over time. In this paper we model the factors that predict participation in the Canadian construction industry in 1986 and 2016, and document the changes between these two points in time. We find broad similarities between the sociodemographic characteristics of workers in 1986 and 2016, and large changes in the source regions of these workers. We also find different geographical mobility patterns between 1986 and 2016, and discuss the implications of these changes for both the industry itself, and the workers and families that derive their livelihoods from construction work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population growth in many major cities is partly driven by migration from rural areas, which constrains these communities' development. Despite this concern, research that longitudinally examines the patterns and predictors of youth outmigration to urban areas, as well as return migration to rural areas, is very limited in Canada. To address this void, we longitudinally link Canada's Youth in Transition Survey, Cohort A, and the Programme for International Student Assessment reading scores, measured at age 15, to individuals' tax filer information through age 30 via the T1 Family File to examine the characteristics and extent of rural Canada's youth out- and return migration. Our analysis points to two important findings: (a) the 'leavers' are more educated with higher levels of employability and income than the 'stayers' and (b) the 'returners' tend to come back to rural areas as a result of economic constraints in urban areas. Based on these findings, we provide several recommendations for policymakers and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mountainous inland of northern Calabria (Southern Italy) is known for its sparse prehistoric human occupation. Nevertheless, a thorough multidisciplinary approach of field walking, geophysical survey and invasive research led to the discovery of a major archaeological archive. This archive concerns a rich multi-phased dump, spanning about 3000 years (Late Neolithic to Late Imperial Roman Age) and holding two Somma-Vesuvius tephra. Of these, the younger is a distinct layer of juvenile tephra from the Pompeii eruption, while the older concerns reworked tephra from the Bronze Age AP2 eruption (ca. 1700 cal. yr BP). The large dump contains abundant ceramics, faunal remains and charcoal, and most probably originated through long-continued deposition of waste in a former gully like system of depressions. This resulted in an inversed, mound-like relief, whose anthropogenic origin had not been recognized in earlier research. The tephras were found to be important markers that support the reconstruction of the occupational history of the site. The sequence of occupational phases is very similar to that observed in a recent palaeoecological study from nearby situated former lakes (Lago Forano/Fontana Manca). This suggests that this sequence reflects the more regional occupational history of Calabria, which goes back to ca. 3000 BC. Attention is paid to the potential link between this history and Holocene climatic phases, for which no indication was found. The history deviates strongly from histories deduced from the few, but major palaeorecords elsewhere in the inlands of Southern Italy (Lago Grande di Monticchio and Lago Trifoglietti). We conclude that major regional variation occurred in prehistoric land use and its impacts on the vegetation cover of Southern Italy, and studies of additional palaeoarchives are needed to unravel this complex history. Finally, shortcomings of archaeological predictive models are discussed and the advantages of truly integrated multidisciplinary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable research focuses on why internal migration rates are declining across most of the Western world. Several studies also look at why people are less likely to change jobs than they were in the past. In this paper, we look at the prospect of declining economic returns as an explanation for the joint decline in both phenomena in Canada. We use the Canadian Employer‐Employee Dynamics Database, a linked job–individual–family–firm data set, to look at the 5‐year income trajectories for Canadian workers who changed job and province of residence (movers) in 1997, 2002, and 2007. We compare these returns with those of job switchers who did not move (nonmover job switchers) and with those that changed neither jobs nor province (nonmover nonjob switchers). We find that the mover's premium, defined as the increase in income that accompanies either a job change or a geographical move, has decreased over time and argue that this may help explain why internal migration and labour fluidity have been declining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The objective of this study is to examine the magnitude and pattern of small-area geographic variation in rates of preventable hospitalisations for ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSC) across Canada (excluding Québec). Design and setting A cross-sectional study conducted in Canada (excluding Québec) using data from the 2006 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort (CanCHEC) linked prospectively to hospitalisation records from the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) for the three fiscal years: 2006–2007, 2007–2008 and 2008–2009. Primary outcome measure Preventable hospitalisations (ACSC). Participants The 2006 CanCHEC represents a population of 22 562 120 individuals in Canada (excluding Québec). Of this number, 2 940 150 (13.03%) individuals were estimated to be hospitalised at least once during the 2006–2009 fiscal years. Methods Age-standardised annualised ACSC hospitalisation rates per 100 000 population were computed for each of the 190 Census Divisions. To assess the magnitude of Census Division-level geographic variation in rates of preventable hospitalisations, the global Moran’s I statistic was computed. ‘Hot spot’ analysis was used to identify the pattern of geographic variation. Results Of all the hospitalisation events reported in Canada during the 2006–2009 fiscal years, 337 995 (7.10%) events were ACSC-related hospitalisations. The Moran’s I statistic (Moran’s I=0.355) suggests non-randomness in the spatial distribution of preventable hospitalisations. The findings from the ‘hot spot’ analysis indicate a cluster of Census Divisions located in predominantly rural and remote parts of Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and in eastern and northern parts of Nunavut with significantly higher than average rates of preventable hospitalisation. Conclusion The knowledge generated on the small-area geographic variation in preventable hospitalisations can inform regional, provincial and national decision makers on planning, allocation of resources and monitoring performance of health service providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]