Target group profiles (TGP) provide Census Profile variables for a subset, or target group, of the population. This TGP provides the Census Profile for the population with income below the after-tax Low Income Cut-Off (LICO-AT) threshold.
'Low-income cut-offs, after-tax (LICO-AT)' refers to income thresholds, defined using 1992 expenditure data, below which economic families or persons not in economic families would likely have devoted a larger share of their after-tax income than average to the necessities of food, shelter and clothing. More specifically, the thresholds represented income levels at which these families or persons were expected to spend 20 percentage points or more of their after-tax income than average on food, shelter and clothing. These thresholds have been adjusted to current dollars using the all-items Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Target group profiles (TGPs) provide data for a specific group of persons (a "target group"). All variables in the Target Group Profile are ‘person-level’ variables: their age, their gender, their family status (e.g., are they in a census family), the languages they speak, and so on. Because TGPs deal with the universe of persons, they do not contain any family- or household-specific variables. For example, the average family size, household income or renter/owner status are variables that do not relate to a person, but to a family or household, and so they are not included in TGPs.
25% vs 100% samples – Comparing values with publicly accessible data
The 2021 short form Census questionnaire was sent out to 100% of all households. The 2021 long form Census questionnaire was sent out to 25% of all households. Target Group Profiles are produced using the 25% sample. Variables that are available in both the 25% sample and the 100% sample will have different values depending on the source of the data. For example, the total population of a city taken from the 25% sample (a Target Group Profile) will differ from that taken from the 100% sample (the online Census Profile).