Canada Facts 1991: An International Business Comparison

Jeffrey Moon is Documents Reference/Data Centre Librarian at Queen’s
University.

This is a rich compilation of Canadian and international statistics
highlighting Canada’s position in world business. The book lives up to
its name, providing just the facts and none of the prose that dilutes
such Canadian sources as the Canada Year Book. This work’s mix of
tables and graphs more closely resembles the U.S. Statistical Abstract
in its numeric focus.

The book’s statistics describe basic demographics and social factors,
as well as such infrastructural variables as transportation, education,
research and development, labor, finance and banking, communications,
and energy. In addition, it covers more-specific business-oriented
statistics, including trade, corporations, markets, industrial
structure, and foreign investment.

The tables and graphs are presented clearly, with Canadian content
highlighted and notes effectively explain their contents. The data are
reasonably timely, given the difficulties of compiling international
data: most are from 1989, with historical series covering the past
decade or so. However, tables presenting purely Canadian data should
have been more current.

Statistics Canada catalogue numbers should have been included, to
facilitate accessing the source. More-aggressive investigation of
Canadian statistical sources would have provided more-complete data for
several Canadian tables. Somewhat disconcertingly, the “Canada”
column of an international table on divorce statistics, contains two
blanks.

Overall, though, this book provides a concise digest of statistics that
will prove useful in answering business-related questions.