Analysis

Description: This article presents data on Indigenous Peoples and their experiences with wildfires, along with spatial data on forest fires and air quality from 2023. The analysis integrates results from the 2024 Survey Series on First Nations People, Métis and Inuit - Emergency Preparedness and Extreme Weather with 2021 Census Indigenous population data, alongside spatial data on forest fires and air quality from 2023. This analytical article uses maps, charts and tables to show findings, including burned-area estimates and air quality index values, to provide a comprehensive overview of wildfire experiences among Indigenous populations in Canada.

Description: Based on results from the 2022 Survey on the Official Language Minority Population, this research note provides contextual information on the combined reporting of English and French in the Census of Population language questions. It answers common questions on the interpretation of some language concepts, such as knowledge of official languages, mother tongue, language spoken at home, and first official language spoken.

Description: We test the notion that a quasi-probabilistic method of selecting individuals within households (last birthday, LB) draws in a different sample compared to a non-probabilistic approach that selects respondents according to known parameters on age and gender (frequency matching, FM). With data from an original field experiment, we evaluate fieldwork efficiency (time and completed cases), economy (cost), success in recruiting a representative sample, and differences across a set of attitudinal and behavioral measures. We find that the FM approach performs better on efficiency and cost and achieves a comparable sample; importantly, this comparability extends across measures of personality traits and public opinion. With appropriate caveats, we conclude that researchers’ choice of selection methods should be guided by both theoretical benefits and practical tradeoffs.

Description: In the age of big data, nonprobability surveys are becoming increasingly abundant. Data integration techniques involving both probability and nonprobability surveys are being extensively used for providing improved estimates for finite population estimation. While much of the existing research has focused on mitigating selection bias in nonprobability surveys, the issue of measurement error within these surveys remains relatively unexplored. Statistical methods devised with the purpose of reducing selection bias are appropriate for reliable estimation, only under the assumption of accuracy of survey responses. Motivated by a recent case study of Kennedy, Mercer and Lau (2024), our research addresses bias from both measurement and sampling errors in nonprobability surveys. In this article, we propose a new data integration method that uses multiple probability and nonprobability surveys and leverages machine learning models to construct a composite estimator. The proposed composite estimator integrates probability and nonprobability surveys, when both contain response variables of interest. We analyze the performance of this estimator in comparison to an existing composite estimator in literature, analytically as well as empirically, using multiple survey data from Kennedy et al. (2024). Finally, we identify conditions under which the proposed estimator outperforms estimators based solely on probability surveys.

Description: The use of renewable energy sources by Canadian households reflects national priorities and international commitments to sustainability. Using data from the 2021 Households and the Environment Survey, this study examines the socioeconomic and dwelling-related characteristics of households that use renewable energy with respect to how adoption is distributed across the population and which groups are likely to adopt alternative energy, offering context for understanding Canada’s progress toward these goals.

Description: Using data from the Canadian Survey on Working Conditions, this article provides a profile of workers aged 15 to 69 who used artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies at work during the previous year. The article focuses on generative AI which refers to tools trained on large datasets that are used to create new content and to support tasks such as answering questions and problem-solving. Examples of Generative AI tools include ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

Description: This article examines trades certification outcomes from 2008 to 2023 among apprentices who were childhood immigrants, compared with their Canadian-born counterparts, across eight registration cohorts (2008 to 2015).

Description: Canada’s population is getting a makeover. Big boomer and millennial waves, fewer kids, and longer lives are reshaping housing, schools and care. With Patrick Charbonneau, Section Chief in the Centre for Demography at Statistics Canada, we explore the sandwich generation squeeze and the upside of aging.

Description: Following significant changes introduced by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to the international education program, this study aims to assess the feasibility of developing a system to produce up-to-date estimates of international students enrolled in public postsecondary institutions in Canada. Based on survey data and complemented by two administrative data sources, these estimates will address an important data need and provide a clearer picture of the potential impact that immigration policies have had on international postsecondary education in Canada, particularly for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic years.

Description: Volunteering is an important source of support for various organizations. It can be formal (on behalf of a charity or non-profit organization) or informal (helping people directly or improving the community. This infographic looks at formal volunteering among Canadians 55 years and over in 2023.

Description: Canada’s population is getting a makeover. Big boomer and millennial waves, fewer kids, and longer lives are reshaping housing, schools and care. With Patrick Charbonneau, Section Chief in the Centre for Demography at Statistics Canada, we explore the sandwich generation squeeze and the upside of aging.

Description: Volunteering is an important source of support for various organizations. It can be formal (on behalf of a charity or non-profit organization) or informal (helping people directly or improving the community. This infographic looks at formal volunteering among Canadians 55 years and over in 2023.

Description: This infographic presents data about cruise ship passenger arrivals to Canada in 2025.

Description: Everyone wants to be happy, but just how happy are Canadians? On this episode of the Eh Sayers podcast, join quality of life experts from Statistics Canada and Engage Nova Scotia to explore the importance of quality of life programs and what they tell us about our well-being.

Description: This infographic on satisfaction with time use provides valuable information about how a person perceives their overall time spent in daily activities, such as paid work, unpaid work and care, leisure, or sleep. It is an indicator of the Canada’s Quality of Life Framework and one of the OECD’s recommended measures of subjective well-being.

Description: The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) tells us about the health and size of Canada’s economy. But for those of us who don’t own or operate multi-million-dollar companies, why does it matter at all? In this episode, Amanda Sinclair, Assistant director for the National Economic Accounts at Statistics Canada, explains some surprising ways GDP can be useful and why, for certain Canadian households, the numbers don’t always seem to add up.

Description: Think your Christmas tree knowledge is top-notch? Time to put it to the test! In this holiday special of Eh Sayers, our colleagues face off in a trivia showdown all about Canada’s Christmas tree industry. Discover which nation first sparked the tradition, how much Canadian Christmas tree farmers earned in 2023, the surprising numbers behind exports and imports, and more festive facts. After listening, you’ll be the go-to expert on Christmas trees at your holiday party!

Description: Has Canada become a sedentary nation? Health data have never been more accessible. We have smart watches to count our steps, notifications about our screen times and apps to track our daily diets. Despite the futuristic tech, researchers are growing concerned. And they’re especially concerned about young Canadians. Today we sat down with Rachel Colley, a senior health researcher at StatCan for a deep dive into Canada’s obesity, physical activity and screen time trends. And the new data from the Canadian Health Measures survey may surprise you.

Description: Calllllll-i-forrrrr-nia... here we come?

If you've changed your plans to visit the US recently, you're not alone. Nowadays, Canadians are more likely to be singing along to "Bobcaygeon" than "Sweet Home Alabama."

Today, we're sitting down with Jane Lin, of the Tourism Statistics Program at Statistics Canada, to dig into StatCan's tourism data and talk about how travel is different these days.

Description: This infographic provides new evidence on time pressure in Canada over a period of 30 years, using the Time Use Survey from 1992 to 2022. The infographic investigates how much time pressure do Canadians feel and in what domains this time pressure is felt the most. It also explores how feelings of time pressure have changed over time and how they might differ by gender.

Description: This article presents data on Indigenous Peoples and their experiences with wildfires, along with spatial data on forest fires and air quality from 2023. The analysis integrates results from the 2024 Survey Series on First Nations People, Métis and Inuit - Emergency Preparedness and Extreme Weather with 2021 Census Indigenous population data, alongside spatial data on forest fires and air quality from 2023. This analytical article uses maps, charts and tables to show findings, including burned-area estimates and air quality index values, to provide a comprehensive overview of wildfire experiences among Indigenous populations in Canada.

Description: Based on results from the 2022 Survey on the Official Language Minority Population, this research note provides contextual information on the combined reporting of English and French in the Census of Population language questions. It answers common questions on the interpretation of some language concepts, such as knowledge of official languages, mother tongue, language spoken at home, and first official language spoken.

Description: We test the notion that a quasi-probabilistic method of selecting individuals within households (last birthday, LB) draws in a different sample compared to a non-probabilistic approach that selects respondents according to known parameters on age and gender (frequency matching, FM). With data from an original field experiment, we evaluate fieldwork efficiency (time and completed cases), economy (cost), success in recruiting a representative sample, and differences across a set of attitudinal and behavioral measures. We find that the FM approach performs better on efficiency and cost and achieves a comparable sample; importantly, this comparability extends across measures of personality traits and public opinion. With appropriate caveats, we conclude that researchers’ choice of selection methods should be guided by both theoretical benefits and practical tradeoffs.

Description: In the age of big data, nonprobability surveys are becoming increasingly abundant. Data integration techniques involving both probability and nonprobability surveys are being extensively used for providing improved estimates for finite population estimation. While much of the existing research has focused on mitigating selection bias in nonprobability surveys, the issue of measurement error within these surveys remains relatively unexplored. Statistical methods devised with the purpose of reducing selection bias are appropriate for reliable estimation, only under the assumption of accuracy of survey responses. Motivated by a recent case study of Kennedy, Mercer and Lau (2024), our research addresses bias from both measurement and sampling errors in nonprobability surveys. In this article, we propose a new data integration method that uses multiple probability and nonprobability surveys and leverages machine learning models to construct a composite estimator. The proposed composite estimator integrates probability and nonprobability surveys, when both contain response variables of interest. We analyze the performance of this estimator in comparison to an existing composite estimator in literature, analytically as well as empirically, using multiple survey data from Kennedy et al. (2024). Finally, we identify conditions under which the proposed estimator outperforms estimators based solely on probability surveys.

Description: The use of renewable energy sources by Canadian households reflects national priorities and international commitments to sustainability. Using data from the 2021 Households and the Environment Survey, this study examines the socioeconomic and dwelling-related characteristics of households that use renewable energy with respect to how adoption is distributed across the population and which groups are likely to adopt alternative energy, offering context for understanding Canada’s progress toward these goals.

Description: Using data from the Canadian Survey on Working Conditions, this article provides a profile of workers aged 15 to 69 who used artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies at work during the previous year. The article focuses on generative AI which refers to tools trained on large datasets that are used to create new content and to support tasks such as answering questions and problem-solving. Examples of Generative AI tools include ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

Description: This article examines trades certification outcomes from 2008 to 2023 among apprentices who were childhood immigrants, compared with their Canadian-born counterparts, across eight registration cohorts (2008 to 2015).

Description: Following significant changes introduced by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to the international education program, this study aims to assess the feasibility of developing a system to produce up-to-date estimates of international students enrolled in public postsecondary institutions in Canada. Based on survey data and complemented by two administrative data sources, these estimates will address an important data need and provide a clearer picture of the potential impact that immigration policies have had on international postsecondary education in Canada, particularly for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 academic years.

Description: Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely recognized as a transformative technology with the potential to reshape business operations and drive productivity growth. Understanding the relationship between AI adoption and business performance is critical for shaping policies that foster innovation, technology diffusion and sustainable economic growth, especially given Canada’s persistent productivity challenges. This article summarizes key findings from the study “The Role of Complementary Capabilities in AI Adoption and Productivity: Firm-Level Evidence from Canada” by Li and Liu (2026), published in Canadian Public Policy. Using a novel firm-level database that links multiple waves of the Survey of Digital Technology and Internet Use (SDTIU) to administrative business microdata, the study examines factors influencing AI adoption among Canadian businesses and explores the relationship between AI adoption and firms’ labour productivity.

Description: The experience of loneliness is not evenly distributed in the population but disproportionately affects certain social groups. For example, persons with disabilities have a greater risk of loneliness than persons without disabilities and immigrants have a greater risk of loneliness than Canadian-born persons. This study examines how differences in the experience of loneliness between immigrants and Canadian-born persons with disabilities emerge in the context of socioeconomic participation (employment and school attendance) and socioeconomic deprivation (food insecurity, core housing need, low-income status), using data from the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability.

Description:

Many of the 60 or so Aboriginal languages in Canada are considered endangered to varying degrees for their long-term survival. Assessing language vitality or endangerment through the measurement of various factors can provide useful information to help ensure the continuity of a language. This paper illustrates how the 2011 Census of Population and the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) can be used to measure some of the factors that provide information related to the vitality of Aboriginal languages.

Description:

This article presents employment and unemployment rates, and some information regarding salaries and industrial sectors of employees, for official-language minorities. These data are based on the Labour Force Survey and enable comparisons between official-language minority and majority according to their situation in the labour market for provinces or groups of provinces.

Description:

This annual publication is based on the Survey of Intellectual Property Commercialization in the Higher Education Sector which tracks the progress of innovation in this area.

The objective of the survey is to assure the availability of pertinent information to monitor science and technology related activities and to support the development of science and technology policy. The topic studied is intellectual property management at universities and affiliated teaching hospitals. The data are used to determine how to maximize the benefits resulting from public sector research. Data users include the federal and provincial governments and university administrators and researchers.

Description: This report offers highlights from the 2007 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating (CSGVP) which was undertaken to better understand how Canadians support individuals and communities on their own or through their involvement with charitable and non-profit organizations. For this survey, thousands of Canadians aged 15 and over were asked how they: gave money and other resources to individuals and to organizations; volunteered time to help others and to enhance their communities; and participated in the practices which help give substance to active citizenship. The results from this survey allow this report to tell a story about who Canada's volunteers and charitable donors are and the ways in which they contribute to our society.

Description: This publication provides the first national portrait of the many thousands of nonprofit and voluntary organizations found in every Canadian community. The data, from the National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations, reveal a set of organizations that are widely diverse in nature, touching virtually every aspect of Canadians' lives.

Description: This booklet summarizes the key results of the first National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations. These organizations have a significant economic presence and serve as vehicles for citizen engagement. However, many report significant challenges to their capacity to fulfill their missions.

Description:

The Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS) was developed by Statistics Canada in partnership with the Department of Canadian Heritage in order to provide new and important information on the ethnic and cultural background of people in Canada and how it relates to their lives in Canada today.

The survey followed the 2001 Census with the census providing the frame for the sample. The target population for the survey was persons aged 15 years or older living in private households in the 10 provinces. The population did not include persons living in collective dwellings, persons living on Indian reserves, persons of Aboriginal origins living off-reserve, or persons living in Northern and remote areas. There was a separate post-censal survey designed for Aboriginal peoples, the Aboriginal Peoples Survey, which was conducted in 2001 and 2002.

Using the EDS data, this article examines Canada's ethno-cultural mosaic in 2002, providing a portrait of the different generations of Canadians who today make up this country. It also analyses the level of attachment that people in the different generations and ethnic groups have to their own ethno-cultural backgrounds and to the broader Canadian society.

Description:

This paper provides a descriptive analysis of issues related to the access and use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) among Canadian youth. In particular, this research examines the extent to which inequities in the use and access of ICT exist among Canadian high school students, based on gender, socio-economic status and rural-urban location. Three datasets have been used to study this issue: the Canadian portion of the Second International Technology in Education Study (SITES), an international survey which measures schools' use of technological resources; the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), which was conducted in conjunction with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); and Cycle 14 of the General Social Survey (GSS), which focusses specifically on issues related to ICT access and use.The results of these analyses suggest that there is a 'digital divide' among Canadian youth, in terms of access to and experience with ICT. Rural youth are less likely to have access to computers in the home; however, frequency of use and perceived competency levels are not compromised by this trend. Female youth and those from families with low levels of parental education are also less likely to have access to computers in their homes. These groups tend to spend less time on the computer and report lower levels of computer skills competency.

Description:

The 2001 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) is a post-censal survey of adults and children whose everyday activities are limited because of a physical condition or health problem. A sample of those persons who answered 'Yes' to the 2001 Census disability filter questions were included in the PALS survey population. Approximately 35,000 adults and 8,000 children living in private or collective households in the 10 provinces were selected to participate in the survey. The data were collected in the fall of 2001.

This paper focuses on the various supports available for adults with disabilities. These supports include technical aids and devices, assistance with everyday activities, housing modifications and tax credits.

Description: This publication describes the statistical system used to produce Canada's balance of international payments and international investment position. Each of the accounts of these two statements is described in terms of concepts, data sources, methods and products. The Canadian practice is related to international standards. The publication concludes with a discusion of future challenges to maintain and enhance this statistical system. An extensive glossary is included. Some historical perspective is provided, notably in the Appendices where a summary of time series is provided along with a chronology of events that affected Canada's external sector over the last half of the XXth century. A description of the foundation of statistics is essential to help users in assessing the quality of data.