Write blog post on Data for Canada website about using Census Data with DuckDB

[diegoripley]

TODO

• KISS DuckDB example(s). Start with:
  • Provinces and Territories
  • Federal Electoral Districs (2013, 2023)
  • Census Subdivisions
  • Forward Sortation Areas
  • Census Tracts
  • Dissemination Areas
  • Dissemination Blocks
• QGIS - need to get it working with DuckDB, it's broken for me right now

[diegoripley]

Intro

This blog post is just for the geographic boundaries and Census data for the 2021 Census

Geographic Hiearchy

Include the geographic hiearchy diagram.

https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/ref/dict/fig/index-eng.cfm?ID=F1_1

• Add a table that makes a correspondence between geographic level and the filenames
• Link to the file naming structure document

Cartographic vs. Digital Boundaries

• Brief explanation of when to use cartographic and digital boundaries
• Note that cartographic data is not the best, recommend for the end-user to make their own cartographic data based on high-quality hydrographic data

Fields

Boundaries

DESCRIBE TABLE 'ca_statcan_2021A000011124_d4c-datapkg-statistical_dissemination_blocks_digital_2021_v0.1.0-beta.parquet';

• Make a table that describes each field. Not every geographic level has every field
• Mention that this project will make sure that all fields are standardized for all Census years, so this will all be the same for previous Census years (2016, 2011, 2006, etc).

Census Data

• Use this to determine the name for the fields (ex. count_total_1 for Population, 2021)

Examples

Pick a few examples from the geographic hiearchy, run them from the DuckDB QGIS plugin.