Interviewer instructions
3.3 Housing Unit
A Housing Unit is a building or buildings used for living purposes at the time of the Census.
3.4 Dwelling Unit
A Dwelling Unit is any building or separate and independent part of a building in which a person or group of persons are living at the time of the Census. The essential features of a dwelling unit are "separateness" and independence". An enclosure is separate if surrounded by walls or other forms of partitioning, covered by a roof so that a person or group of persons, can isolate themselves from other persons for purposes of sleeping, preparing and sharing meals. It is independent when it has direct access from the street or common landing, staircase, passage or gallery; when occupants
can come in and go out of it without passing through anybody else's accommodation.
The key factors in defining a dwelling unit are separateness and independence. Occupiers of a dwelling unit must have free access to the street by their own separate and independent entrance(s) without having to pass through the living quarters of another household.
3.6 Private Household
A Private Household will often be comprised of a father, mother and children living together.
Many other arrangements will, however, be encountered and further
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guidance can be obtained from the following:
(i) All lodgers, domestic helpers, farm hands and other employees who live in the dwelling and consider it their usual place of residence should be included as members of the household.
(ii) If an individual sleeps in the same structure as the main household and shares at least one meal per day with the household, include him as a household member.
(iii) A domestic employee who sleeps in the house or in an outbuilding on the premises is to be listed as a member of the household if he or she sleeps there on an average of at least four nights per week and shares at least one meal daily. If the helper's partner or children live on the premises, all members of this family are to be included with the main household if they share meals with the main household. If there are separate arrangements for cooking they should be considered as a separate household.
(iv) In the case of a tenement yard where there is a series of rooms rented to different persons by the landlord, each person or group of persons who live and share meals together is regarded as a separate household. A household in this special context may share external bathroom, toilet or even kitchen facilities with other similar households.
3.7 Non-Private Household
Non-private Households are comprised of persons who live collectively in institutions or other such organizations.
3.8 Private Dwelling
Private Dwellings are those in which private households reside. Examples are single houses, flats, apartments, part of commercial buildings, and boarding houses catering for less than six boarders.
3.9 Non-private Dwelling/Group Dwelling/Institutions
Non-private Dwelling or Group Dwellings are defined as living quarters in which the occupants live collectively for disciplinary, health, educational, religious, military, work or other reasons. Living collectively means that they usually eat common meals and share common domestic services.
Such quarters are found most frequently in home for the military, orphanages, prisons and reformatories, sanatoria, religious cloisters, convent, monasteries, school dormitories, hotels and guests houses.
5.22 Question 2.1
This question can be completed from observation. If, of course, there are any doubts, ask the respondent to clarify.
Illustrations of the different types of Units are included in the Appendices to this manual. Examine them carefully. Pay particular attention to apartment buildings and townhouses which increasingly have become dominant types of units especially in the urban areas.
Separate House - Detached - This is the most common type of unit. This is the type usually constructed for occupation by a single household and which has open space on all four sides. Include here duplex houses which are separated by garages.
Semi-Detached - This is a unit joined to only one other unit separated by a wall extending from ground to roof, with the other three or more sides open. There may be one or more floors in this type of housing unit. Duplex houses separated by a wall and not a garage should be included here.
Apartment Building - This is a building containing a large number of private flats or apartments. Each such flat or apartment is then a dwelling unit within the larger housing unit.
Townhouse - This is a type of semi-detached building, but whereas the semi-detached is joined to only one other unit, the Townhouse is one of a set of houses joined together in a row.
Improvised Housing Unit - This is an independent makeshift shelter or structure built usually of waste materials and generally considered unfit for habitation which is being used as living quarters at the time of the census, usually by one household.
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Part of Commercial Building - The term "Commercial" is used here to include all non-residential buildings. This includes therefore all cases where a household occupies part of a building which is used mainly as a business place or other non-living unit.
Other - include here any type of housing unit which does not fit any of the categories mentioned; boats, tents, trailers, etc., are examples.