Data lovers, unite

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and we’d love for you to be our Plus-one. While we can only send you survey and census forms (not flowers or chocolate), we can certainly deliver on the numbers.

In February 2025, there were $1.5 billion in retail sales of cookies, confectionery, and snack foods, a category which includes chocolate and chocolate products. Meanwhile, Canadians spent more on jewellery and watches ($408.7 million) than on cut flowers, indoor potted plants and floral supplies ($185.3 million). There were $37.2 million in sales of products such as posters, art maps, prints, and greeting cards.

While we can’t pinpoint how much of those sales were Valentine’s-related chocolate, jewellery and cards, there is a pattern: all three of those categories saw an uptick in sales from January to February during the period from 2023 to 2025, except for a slight decline in 2025 in the category which includes greeting cards.

If you’re going to a florist near you for that perfectly curated bouquet, there were 2,945 of them across the country in June 2025.

About half of these florists reported staff numbers, and of those, nearly three in five (59.3%) had one to four employees. (Those that didn’t report staff numbers could include sole proprietorships.) Don’t wait until the last minute to buy your flowers!

Over the past year, poor growing conditions for cocoa beans and US tariffs on producing countries were contributing factors to rising chocolate prices. In 2025, prices for confectionery rose 7.1%, following increases in 2024 (+2.9%), 2023 (+7.8%), and 2022 (+5.3%).

On July 1, 2025, there were an estimated 9.2 million couples living in Canada, according to the most recent population estimate of families.

According to the 2021 Census of Population, marriage remains the predominant type of union. In 2021, more than three-quarters (77%) of couples were married, with the remaining 23% living common law. Among G7 countries, Canada had the highest share of couples living common law, mainly due to the popularity of this type of union in Quebec—home to more than two-fifths (43%) of Canada’s common-law couples. Excluding Quebec, the share of common-law couples in Canada would have been 17% in 2021.

Speaking of the census—the 2026 Census is just around the corner! Data-quality time is our love language, and we’d love if you’d fill out your census when you receive your invitation letter starting in May, or as early as February in select northern and remote communities.

Collecting information such as marital status and family characteristics, alongside other topics such as age, education, occupation and dwelling type, leads to valuable census data. These data help guide important policy and planning decisions that matter to families, communities, businesses, and more.