The Canadian census has been undertaken every 10 years since 1871, with a mid-decade minor census taken since 1976. The 2026 census, a “minor” census, has taken place over the last few months, with an official date of May 12, 2026.
Expectations are that the Canadian census will show about 41.5 million people, up from 37 million just five years ago. Most of that recent increase comes not from reproduction increases but from net immigration. For most of the last few centuries, the Canadian population has hovered at around 10% of the population of the United States and even with the recent growth, it remains in that zone.
The Canadian census is organized much like the US census was until 2000 – with a short form and a long form. About one in four households is asked to complete the long form.
The short form for 2026 collects basic demographic information, but has been expanded to include:
- Age
- Sex and gender
- Language
The form now splits sex into two questions – the first asking for gender identification and the second asking for sex at birth. The gender question is open-ended.
The long form asks questions a wide range of questions that cover the basics of what we would consider the primary contribution of the American Community Survey. At AGS, we tend to divide the range of questions into five categories –
- Population characteristics
- Household characteristics
- Labor force characteristics
- Dwelling characteristics
- Income
While income is obviously not a category on its own – some income tables relate to persons, others to households – we separate it since most users are interested in it.
The 2026 long form includes several new questions that will no doubt be of interest to users, including:
- Health status, by asking the question “in general, how is your health?” with standard answers ranging from excellent to poor
- Activity limitations (such as visual impairment)
- Sexual orientation, which is a hybrid answer (some check boxes, or “other, please specify” open ended questions.
- Homelessness
- Religion, which has been included in the major census long form, but not the minor
While the specifics of each of these additions are not yet clear, the 2026 census promises to yield several new tables. The open-ended questions are likely to result in sparse data for small geographies but will nevertheless add some significant valuable insights. As the population ages, health concerns become more important, and the tables related to general health status and especially activity limitations.
For those not overly familiar with Canadian census data, there are several key differences that should be considered:
- The Canadian census is every five years, while the US census is every ten. However, the US runs the annual American Community Survey (ACS), which provides a rolling 10% sample of households over time in its 5-year release.
- Canada uses random rounding to protect confidentiality (for small areas, all statistics are rounded to the nearest 5), which introduces significant noise in small area statistics. In the United States, a recent policy change will shift away from the “disclosure avoidance” techniques used for the 2020 census but will likely come at the cost of detail in tables. Both methods present significant challenges to the use of census data for small areas.
- Canadian dissemination areas (DA) tend to be more temporally unstable than their US block groups (BG), making time series analysis for small areas considerably more challenging. Further, there are significant differences in how metropolitan areas are defined, and the census tract program does not cover rural areas in Canada.
We will keep readers apprised of release dates and our integration of this data into our demographic models that create current year and projected estimates.