The Canadian census traces its roots back to as early as 1666, when the first North American census was conducted in New France. Just like Canada, it has changed a lot since then—learn how!
The census and your family history
Do you want to learn how you can use the census to find out more about your family's history? Check out our blog posts!
The first ever census taken in what would eventually become Canada was taken in 1666, by the Intendant of New France, Jean Talon. Talon conducted most of the census himself, going from door to door, recording the names, genders, ages, and occupations of the population. This included seven butchers, eleven bakers, and three candlestick makers.
1871
The first Canadian national census
The 1867 Constitution Act required that a national census be undertaken every ten years. The first of these was held in 1871. While it was a "national" census, it only included the four original provinces (Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), even though both Manitoba and British Columbia were also part of confederation by this date.
1906
The Prairie provinces census
In 1906, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta began to take the censuses of population and agriculture every five years, in order to keep up with the economic growth in the West.
1941
Sampling is introduced
The first Canadian census to use sampling as a method of data collection was the 1941 Census. Previously, all households received the same census questionnaire. However, during the 1941 Census, 9 out of 10 households started receiving a shorter, more basic questionnaire, while 1 out of 10 received a longer, more detailed questionnaire. In 1951, these ratios were changed so that 20% of households received the long-form questionnaire.
1971
The Statistics Act of 1971
The first steps towards the modern census were taken in 1971. Not only was the agency responsible for the census renamed from Dominion Bureau of Statistics to Statistics Canada, but the census would now be taken every five years. The 1971 Census was also the first census to include self-enumeration, where each household (outside of Indigenous reserves and Northern communities) would complete their questionnaire themselves before sending it back to Statistics Canada. This year also marked the 100th anniversary of the Canadian national census.
2016
Reintroduction of the long-form census
In 2010, the mandatory long-form census was replaced with a new voluntary National Household Survey. This switch was done to recognize the concerns of individuals who saw the long-form census as an invasion of privacy, while also taking into account the important role that this information plays in developing public policy. However, the mandatory long-form census was brought back for the 2016 Census.
2021
The first pandemic census
The 2021 Census is the first Canadian census to take place during a pandemic. A number of changes had to be made to the census in response to the realities of living during the COVID-19 pandemic, including physically-distanced enumeration and making the census questionnaire available for everyone to complete online.
How are census data used?
Governments, Indigenous communities and organizations, community and farm organizations, businesses, as well as many others use census data.
Below are some examples of how census information is used to make informed decisions that directly benefit you, your community and the country as a whole.
Governments
Federal government
Voting: The federal government uses population counts from certain census years to realign the boundaries of federal electoral districts and to ensure equal representation of the population in the House of Commons.
Old Age Security and Canada Child Benefit: Government departments use demographic and household composition data from the census to plan social programs such as Old Age Security and the Canada Child Benefit.
Planning for natural and other hazards: Federal research teams use census information to model risks from hazard events such as flooding, earthquakes, coastal hazards or man-made disasters. Understanding where populations are present helps model where people may be exposed to hazards.
Provincial and territorial governments
Daycare, schools and retirement residences: Provincial and territorial governments use census data on age and population numbers to understand how an area is changing and to estimate program needs, including the need for new daycare centres, schools and retirement residences.
Health services: By mapping census data, provincial and territorial governments can better provide community health services according to neighbourhood needs.
Roads and public transport: Transportation planners for provincial, territorial, regional and municipal governments use census information to analyze traffic flows, assess existing transportation services, and plan for changes to these services and to road networks.
Municipal governments
Schools and emergency services: Municipalities use demographic and household composition data from the census to plan a variety of services, such as daycare centres, schools, police and fire protection services.
Seniors services: Municipal governments use census data on seniors to plan the need for affordable seniors housing or portable housing benefits. Census data on seniors are also used to determine where paramedic services call volumes may increase in the future and if the appropriate resources are allocated properly.
Translation needs: Municipal and provincial governments use census data on language to determine the need to translate documentation and signage.
Indigenous communities and organizations
Community support: Indigenous communities use census data to evaluate existing health and social services and to determine the best ways they can support their community, whether it is through educational skills programs, employment and training services, health services, housing supports, or early childhood services.
Economic development: First Nations use census information to assist with economic development to provide data for grants, programs, and services.
Programs for the community: Organizations who provide services to First Nations people, Métis and Inuit use Indigenous identity and basic demographic data to plan and develop programs that respond to the needs of the population.
Indigenous languages: Indigenous leadership uses census information on Indigenous languages to assess the need for services in traditional languages and to create programs that support the learning and growth of these languages in their communities.
Community organizations
Employment: Managers of programs use census data to help the visible minority population and people with disabilities join the workforce and get better jobs. They also rely on the census for information about the job market.
Services for people with disabilities: Census data are used to determine who should be included in the Canadian Survey on Disability, which collects information on the type and severity of disability, use of aids and assistive devices, help received or required, use of various therapies and social service supports, educational attainment, labour force participation details, requirements and unmet needs for accommodations at school or work, and the experience of being housebound. This information helps organizations and governments to evaluate and implement programs and services tailored to people with disabilities, and to eliminate the barriers that they may face.
Farm organizations
Financial decisions: Farm organizations draw on census information to make production, marketing and investment decisions.
Trends: Census data is used to identify trends and changes in farming practices, and provide factual information on emerging economic and social issues, as well as opportunities and challenges within the agricultural community.
Impact of weather: Farm organizations use census data to evaluate the impact of natural disasters on agriculture (such as floods, drought and storms) and react appropriately.
Businesses
Property decisions: Businesses determine new factory, store and office locations based largely on the size and distribution of the population in different areas, which are determined through census data.
Market decisions: Business owners use census information on geography and median income to determine how much potential customers in an area can spend on a good or service.
Life insurance: Life insurance companies base their premium tables on census age data.
Product development: Manufacturers of household and farm equipment use census data in determining the best market locations for their products. They can also assess the benefits of developing specific products by knowing the characteristics of the population in particular areas.
Individuals
Finding a new home: Families look at census data when they are choosing a new neighbourhood to make sure the surroundings are suited to their lifestyles.
Salary negotiations: Workers use census data on occupations to identify average salaries by profession, which can help them make their case for a higher salary.
Education choices: By looking at census data on occupations, students can determine which professions are most in-demand, which can help them make informed decisions on which education program to choose.
Statistics Canada places the highest priority on protecting your privacy, as well as maintaining the confidentiality and security of completed questionnaires. Your answers are collected under the authority of the Statistics Act and are kept strictly confidential.
Only Statistics Canada employees with a need to know and whose job requires them to work with the questionnaires see individual completed questionnaires—and they all are subject to the confidentiality provisions of the Statistics Act. All Statistics Canada employees take an oath of secrecy, which is in effect for life—even after employment has ended.
No one outside Statistics Canada has access to any individual information obtained through the census. Private contractors do not have access to confidential data, and no information that could be used to identify respondents will ever be provided to other departments or agencies.
Security of the online questionnaire
Statistics Canada takes the protection of confidential information provided online seriously. A secure login process and strong encryption are key elements in helping to prevent anyone from obtaining access to census information.
To protect the security of personal information on the Internet, Statistics Canada incorporated the following safeguards:
Strong encryption technologies to ensure security of data passing between respondents' computers and Statistics Canada's web servers.
Encryption methods based on Transport Layer Security (TLS), which guarantee that access to data cannot be compromised.
Encryption of data submitted to the web servers before being stored, as well as ongoing encryption until data are transferred to the high security internal network.
Processing and storage of census data on a high-security internal network.
Powerful firewalls, intrusion detection and stringent access control procedures to limit access to back-end systems and databases.
Confidentiality of completed questionnaires
Stringent instructions and procedures have been implemented to ensure that confidentiality of census data (including the completed questionnaires) is maintained at all times. This requirement extends to all secure locations, including the private residences of employees.
All employees are sworn to secrecy when they are hired. The Statistics Act states that employees are liable to fines of up to $1,000 and/or jail terms of up to six months if they reveal personal information.
Wholesale Trade Survey (monthly): CVs for Total sales by geography - September 2021
Geography
Month
202009
202010
202011
202012
202101
202102
202103
202104
202105
202106
202107
202108
202109
percentage
Canada
0.7
0.5
0.6
0.8
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.7
0.9
0.8
0.6
0.6
0.7
Newfoundland and Labrador
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.6
0.5
0.2
1.2
2.3
0.3
0.3
0.4
0.4
Prince Edward Island
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Nova Scotia
1.7
2.7
3.4
6.3
1.8
1.7
2.6
4.8
8.1
3.0
2.3
2.5
2.8
New Brunswick
3.5
2.9
5.0
3.5
3.4
2.6
1.1
1.1
1.9
3.4
2.1
1.9
2.4
Quebec
1.9
1.5
1.4
1.7
1.8
1.8
1.9
1.8
3.1
2.9
1.6
1.7
1.6
Ontario
1.0
0.8
0.9
1.3
1.2
1.1
0.9
1.1
1.2
0.9
0.8
1.0
1.0
Manitoba
2.8
1.7
1.4
2.5
1.7
2.4
1.8
2.8
5.3
1.7
0.8
1.1
1.6
Saskatchewan
0.7
0.9
0.9
1.0
1.0
1.6
1.2
0.8
0.7
0.8
0.5
1.3
1.5
Alberta
3.4
1.3
1.3
1.7
1.0
1.2
1.1
1.2
1.4
1.2
1.5
1.1
1.0
British Columbia
1.8
1.4
1.5
1.4
1.5
1.4
1.5
1.3
1.4
1.4
1.5
1.4
1.7
Yukon Territory
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Northwest Territories
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Nunavut
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Labour Market Information Council and Statistics Canada seeking input on Labour Market Information gaps
Objectives
The Labour Market Information Council (LMIC) and Statistics Canada understand how important the availability of timely and relevant insights about the labour market is to support Canadians in their decisions to acquire education and skills, plan their career and search for a job. Public organizations, businesses, as well as labour market experts also value data and insights about the labour market to support their decision making or serve Canadians in their pursuit of a successful career or business.
To better understand needs about labour market information (LMI) and help determine data priorities and gaps in this area, LMIC and Statistics Canada have developed an online questionnaire to gather input from organizations and professionals with an interest in LMI.
Share your opinions, and help us shape the future of the labour market information system!
How to get involved
We invite all interested organizations or individuals using labour market data and information for their work to fill out the short online questionnaire.
Completing the questionnaire is easy and should take approximately 10 minutes.
Statistics Canada is committed to respecting the privacy and confidentiality of its participants. All personal information collected, used or disclosed by the Agency is protected under the Privacy Act. Please refrain from sharing any personal information (as defined in Section 3 of the Privacy Act) when filling out the questionnaire. Findings from the questionnaire will be stripped of any personal information, the personal information will be disposed of, and results will be aggregated before being made available on the Agency's website in the Consulting Canadians module, as well as on the Canadian government website Consulting With Canadians.
Closing date
The questionnaire will be available online from November 15, 2021 to December 24, 2021.
Results
Summary results of the questionnaire will be published online when available.
Every five years, Canadians are invited to participate in the census to help paint a portrait of Canada's diverse population and the places where we live.
The Census of Population provides high-quality information on key socioeconomic trends and analysis that helps Canadians make important decisions that affect our families, our neighbourhoods and our businesses.
The Census of Agriculture is conducted at the same time and collects information about every agricultural operation in Canada.
The most recent census took place in May 2021. Learn more about how and why it was conducted, and how it was adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Census of Population
The 2021 Census of Population was Canada's 23rd national census. It collected information on the demographic, social and economic situation of people across Canada, as well as on the dwellings they lived in.
The information you provided ensures that the Census of Population accurately reflects Canada's changing society. Your responses are vital to your community for planning services that support employment, schools, public transportation and hospitals.
Census of Agriculture
The Census of Agriculture traces its roots back to 1871, the dawn of Canada's confederation. It will update the number of existing agricultural operations in Canada—in 2016, there were 193,650, and in 2011, there were 205,889.
The Census of Agriculture provides information on all aspects of the Canadian agriculture industry—from the township, rural or municipal level to the national level. Both public and private agricultural organizations use the data collected from the Census of Agriculture.
The 2021 Census in the context of COVID-19
The Census Program has adapted to the COVID-19 situation to ensure that the 2021 Census of Population is conducted throughout the country in the best possible way, using a safe and secure approach.
Whenever follow-up activities were required, Statistics Canada used practices aligned with the strictest health and safety directives from public health authorities. No enumeration activities took place inside the dwellings of respondents, and all interviews were physically distanced. In addition, personal safety equipment were provided to field employees to ensure the health and safety of employees and the public.
Statistics Canada is proud of its ability to rethink and rework all of the key aspects of this country's largest peacetime activity—while ensuring at all times the safety of Canadians, including our employees.
Statistics Canada is dedicated to protecting you from misinformation and disinformation about the 2021 Census, from false or fraudulent information to scamming attempts.
Misinformation watch
Stay informed of any ongoing misinformation or scamming attempts related to the 2021 Census.
No, Statistics Canada isn't tied to a US weapons manufacturer
A disinformation website alleges that Statistics Canada has outsourced the Canadian census software and data processing equipment to a subsidiary of US weapons maker. This is false.
All 2021 Census systems were developed in-house, in collaboration with Shared Services Canada, as was the case for the previous census back in 2016.
Inaccurate information shared on social media and in traditional media about the census
Statistics Canada uses service providers to monitor social media and traditional media in order to adapt its operations and communications as it relates to its mandate, as well as to detect and correct misinformation and disinformation in the social environment.
Get the facts straight
Can hackers or other unauthorized people access my census information?
No. Statistics Canada takes every precaution to protect your information, including sophisticated security procedures, techniques, software and hardware:
Encryption technologies enhance the privacy of the information passing between your browser and Statistics Canada's servers so that access to data cannot be compromised.
Census data are processed and stored on a highly restricted internal network and cannot be accessed by anyone who has not taken the oath of secrecy.
Data submitted to Statistics Canada's web servers are encrypted before being stored, and they remain encrypted until they are transferred to the high-security internal network.
National Level CVs by Characteristic
Table summary
This table displays the results of Monthly Survey of Manufacturing: National Level CVs by Characteristic. The information is grouped by Month from September 2020 to September 2021 (appearing as row headers), and Sales of goods manufactured, Raw materials and components inventories, Goods / work in process inventories, Finished goods manufactured inventories and Unfilled Orders, calculated in percentage (appearing as column headers).
National Weighted Rates by Source and Characteristic, September 2021
Table summary
The information is grouped by Sales of goods manufactured, Raw materials and components, Goods / work in process, Finished goods manufactured, Unfilled Orders, Capacity utilization rates (appearing as row headers), and Data source as the first row of column headers, then Response or edited, and Imputed as the second row of column headers, calculated by percentage.
Data source
Response or edited
Imputed
%
Sales of goods manufactured
85.4
14.6
Raw materials and components
75.8
24.2
Goods / work in process
80.2
19.8
Finished goods manufactured
77.4
22.6
Unfilled Orders
90.2
9.8
Capacity utilization rates
67.3
32.7
A new indicator of weekly aircraft movements
By: Krishna Chaitanya Gopaluni, Statistics Canada
Last year when COVID-19 hit Canada, the federal government placed restrictions on non-essential travel across the country to help contain the spread of the virus. Border restrictions also started on March 18, 2020, on the Canada ̶ United States transborder and other international travel. The Aviation team from Statistics Canada's Canadian Centre for Tourism and Transportation Statistics (CCTTS) publishes detailed monthly aircraft movements statistics two months after the reference period, but these were not timely enough to measure the rapidly changing situation.
Amongst the many data sources the CCTTS uses to produce these monthly statistics are the data they receive from NAV CANADA air traffic control towers. The CCTTS team knew the potential of the data, but they didn't have the skills or time required to efficiently produce quality preliminary estimates. As a result, they collaborated with the Data Science Operationalization team (DSOps), part of Statistics Canada's Data Science Division. Together the teams embarked on a project to produce a new indicator of weekly aircraft movements in Canada to assess the impact of the restrictions on Canadian airports with NAV CANADA air traffic control towers.
DSOps worked with the CCTTS to produce a simple custom application which produces estimated aircraft movements drawn from raw data files reported to the Monthly Aircraft Movements program. This application is used by the analysts from the Aviation team to produce weekly data output files that are then loaded into the table Domestic and international Itinerant aircraft movements for dissemination to the public. Data are updated every week and published 12 days after the reference week.
The weekly estimates enable Statistics Canada to provide a leading indicator on the level of aircraft traffic across the country in a very timely manner. This has proved to be a valuable measure, as air traffic has been severely impacted by the pandemic.
Automating the workflow
As this was a new initiative undertaken during the pandemic, it needed to be done in a way that required minimal time and effort to keep up with the changing circumstances in aviation. Analysts from the CCTTS aviation team were unsure of the optimal way to produce weekly estimates. Although they have access to the raw NAV CANADA files, processing them to get the right information is not straightforward as the data are semi-structured. To expedite this process, the DSOps team developed an automated approach to estimate the weekly aircraft movements so that analysts could easily publish the numbers.
A representation of the steps the data go through as they are processed. Moving through pattern matching, position extraction for matched text, domestic airport identification and conversion to a data frame. The structured data frame is then categorized and weekly aggregates are created.
At first glance, automating this process appeared challenging; however, the DSOps team implemented a Python-based solution which proved useful. They employed a simple pattern matching technique using Python regular expression and the built-in string processing library to extract text from a position in semi-structured data. To achieve this, the team first gathered NAV CANADA data from the stakeholders and leveraged pattern recognition techniques to retrieve entries related to 41 domestic airports and information on domestic, transborder and other international movements. Then, the data were transformed into structured data and stored in a data frame. In the next step of the execution, the application categorized each entry into domestic, trans-border or other international travel based on the metadata. Finally, the numbers corresponding to each category were aggregated into weekly movements. Pandas, a Python data analysis library, was also used to create complex weekly aggregations. The weekly aggregation is dependent on the user-provided start date.
Results after automating the workflow
In the initial release on March 18, 2020, analysts used the automated approach to publish the aggregated estimates on aircraft movements. The results showed a decline in the number of flights from these 41 airports. While analyzing the output of automated workflow, it is often difficult to know the quality of the results. However, in this case, there was plenty of ground truth data in the historically published data. The accuracy of the application output was verified by recreating the already published monthly numbers from the previous year. The validation was an iterative process as the majority of the results from the new Python application were close to the published values. There were some outliers that needed to be explored by the CCTTS experts. Once this step was completed, the code was updated until the preliminary estimates from the new Python application and all the published results were acceptably accurate. Since deploying the application to production there has been only one modification needed, when an additional airport was added to the NAV CANADA data.
Impact on the application users
The analysts in CCTTS use the Common Output Data Repository (CODR) format to publish all results on the Statistics Canada website. CODR is a specific database format to help visualize the exported data. The Python application developed by DSOps also produces the results in CODR format, making it easy to integrate with the analyst's existing flow of publishing the estimates. Also, the application was made simpler to interact with for non-technical users by taking input parameters from Excel files.
Had analysts chose to collect and aggregate the information manually using Excel, it would have been very time-consuming and notably laborious. This process would have had to be repeated every time new data arrived. Any new requirements to the workflow would also have added more overhead. With this in mind, there was a need for an extensible, reusable program that could estimate aggregated numbers for aircraft movements. This simple Python program fulfilled this requirement and saved many hours of manual effort.
DSOps and CCTTS are currently looking into the feasibility of expanding the data being published, such as to include a breakdown by major airport.
More information
For more information on this project, please check out:
