Earnings or employment income - Refers to total income received by persons 15 years of age and over during calendar year 2005 as wages and salaries, net income from a non-farm unincorporated business and/or professional practice, and/or net farm self-employment income.

Wages and salaries - Refers to gross wages and salaries before deductions for such items as income tax, pensions and Employment Insurance. Included in this source are military pay and allowances, tips, commissions and cash bonuses, benefits from wage-loss replacement plans or income-maintenance insurance plans, supplementary unemployment benefits from an employer or union as well as all types of casual earnings during calendar year 2005. Other employment income such as taxable benefits, research grants and royalties are included.

Net farm income - Refers to net income (gross receipts from farm sales minus depreciation and cost of operation) received during calendar year 2005 from the operation of a farm, either on the respondent's own account or in partnership. In the case of partnerships, only the respondent's share of income was reported. Included with gross receipts are cash advances received in 2005, dividends from cooperatives, rebates and farm-support payments to farmers from federal, provincial and regional agricultural programs (for example, milk subsidies and marketing board payments) and gross insurance proceeds such as payments from the Net Income Stabilization Account (NISA). The value of income 'in kind,' such as agricultural products produced and consumed on the farm, is excluded.

Net non-farm income from unincorporated business and/or professional practice - Refers to net income (gross receipts minus expenses of operation such as wages, rents and depreciation) received during calendar year 2005 from the respondent's non-farm unincorporated business or professional practice. In the case of partnerships, only the respondent's share was reported. Also included is net income from persons babysitting in their own homes, persons providing room and board to non-relatives, self-employed fishers, hunters and trappers, operators of direct distributorships such as those selling and delivering cosmetics, as well as freelance activities of artists, writers, music teachers, hairdressers, dressmakers, etc.

Average income of individuals - Average income of individuals refers to the weighted mean total income of individuals 15 years of age and over who reported income for 2005. Average income is calculated from unrounded data by dividing the aggregate income of a specified group of individuals (e.g., males 45 to 54 years of age) by the number of individuals with income in that group.

Median income of individuals - The median income of a specified group of income recipients is that amount which divides their income size distribution, ranked by size of income, into two halves, i.e., the incomes of the first half of individuals are below the median, while those of the second half are above the median. Median income is calculated from the unrounded number of individuals (e.g., males 45 to 54 years of age) with income in that group.

Standard error of average income - Refers to the estimated standard error of average income for an income size distribution. If interpreted as shown below, it serves as a rough indicator of the precision of the corresponding estimate of average income. For about 68% of the samples which could be selected from the sample frame, the difference between the sample estimate of average income and the corresponding figure based on complete enumeration would be less than one standard error. For about 95% of the possible samples, the difference would be less than two standard errors and, in about 99% of the samples, the difference would be less than approximately two and one half standard errors.

The above concept and procedures also apply in the calculation of these statistics for earnings or any other source of income and after-tax income of persons 15 years of age and over not in families and households.

Work activity - Refers to the number of weeks in which a person worked for pay or in self-employment in the reference year at all jobs held, even if only for a few hours, and whether these weeks were mostly full time (30 hours or more per week) or mostly part time (1 to 29 hours per week). Persons with a part-time job for part of the year and a full-time job for another part of the year were to report the information for the job at which they worked the most weeks. The term 'Full-year full-time workers' refers to persons 15 years of age and over who worked 49 to 52 weeks (mostly full time) in the reference year for pay or in self-employment.