Reporting on Statelessness Statistics Canada reports that the ‘stateless’ category in the citizenship variable includes persons who give responses of ‘stateless’ or ‘Western Sahara’ to Q 10, with the following exception – persons who reported ‘Hong Kong’ as their place of birth and who also reported ‘stateless’ as their citizenship. These persons were not included in the ‘stateless’ category, but in the category ‘People’s Republic of China’. The attribution of the Peoples Republic of China category to those who reported ‘Hong Kong’ as place of birth and ‘stateless’ as the citizenship was implemented following the cessation of Hong Kong to China. The rule was implemented in the 2001 Census to avoid the overestimation of the stateless population in Canada following the transition in 1997. With respect to other disputed territories, Western Sahara is the only country from Statistics Canada’s Standard List of Countries and Areas of Interest included in the ‘stateless’ category. West Bank and Gaza Strip (Palestine) have their own category given the analytical interest in that particular group and the fact that there are sufficient numbers to disseminate them separately (which is not the case for Western Sahara). Assessment Statistics Canada does not provide its own definition of ‘stateless’ in the National Household Survey, but instead uses survey responses to establish a grouped category of ‘stateless’, comprising several types of responses. It appears Statistics Canada’s process of attribution of citizenship to country of birth does not involve an adequate testing process. Statistics Canada makes assumptions about citizenship based on country of birth and political activity. Depending on that political activity, Statistics Canada groups stateless persons into other citizenship categories. Statistics Canada does so to avoid overestimating the stateless population in Canada, but does so in the absence of a testing or confirmation mechanism. The 2011 National Household Survey reported figure of 1,690 people classified as ‘stateless’ is therefore not reliable. Recommendations Statistics Canada should: 1. As ‘stateless’ is not predefined for the Census user and is open to interpretation, Statistics Canada must include a definition of ‘stateless’, in accordance with international law, in the citizenship section of the National Household Survey. 2. Leave all self-reported ‘stateless’ data in the citizenship category unprocessed. 3. Cease considering political activity as a relevant factor in regrouping data as the nature of the statelessness also concerns non-political activity such as gender biased nationality law; and secondly, political activity, though a cause of statelessness, should not be considered an appropriate indicator of resolution of discrepancies in citizenship or stateless status. 4. Commit to implementing recommendations in advance of the execution of the 2021 National Household Survey. 8