Canadian Housing Statistics Program, 2023 and 2024

Private dwelling estimates

The number of private dwellings is a new experimental measure from the Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP). It aims to produce annual estimates of the housing stock in Canada at the municipal level. Today's release includes estimates for communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. Estimates for additional provinces and territories are under development.

The estimates are a product of several reconciled administrative data sources: provincial and territorial property data from land registries and assessment rolls, as well as residential building data from Statistics Canada's Statistical Building Register. The number of dwellings is estimated for each residential property covered by the CHSP.

The stock of private dwellings is also reported in other contexts by Statistics Canada, such as in the census and in the National Economic Accounts. As these new annual estimates leverage administrative data to generate the estimates of the number of private dwellings, the counts may differ from those of other sources.

Residential property and property owner data

Data reflect the stock of properties available on the property assessment roll for each province and territory for a given reference year. The stock date varies between provinces and territories.

Changes in the number of people occupying their residential properties have led to differences in counts and estimates for property owners in Alberta. Therefore, users are advised to limit comparisons between property owner statistics for the province of Alberta as a whole and for property owners outside census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations.

The CHSP disseminates data based on the geographic boundaries set out in the Standard Geographical Classification 2021.

Data for Newfoundland and Labrador are not available at the provincial level. The CHSP database does not contain information about residential properties on reserves.

Definitions

Private dwelling refers to a separate set of living quarters with a private entrance either from outside the building or from a common hall, lobby, vestibule or stairway inside the building. The entrance to the dwelling must be one that can be used without passing through the living quarters of some other person or group of persons.

Residential property refers to all land and structures intended for private dwelling purposes, whether on a permanent or a temporary basis. A residential property may have more than one owner.