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Statistics Canada: official statistics and The Daily

Statistics Canada is the national statistics office. It publishes the census, the Consumer Price Index, the Labour Force Survey, GDP, population estimates, earnings, government finance and crime statistics. Every release appears first in The Daily, with data tables that can be downloaded or read through the free Web Data Service. Fact-checkers use it for most claims about Canada's economy and society.

Release calendar

What it publishes

• The Census of Population every five years (2026 counts due February 10, 2027).
• Consumer Price Index, monthly.
• Labour Force Survey (unemployment, employment, wages), monthly.
• GDP by industry (monthly) and income and expenditure accounts (quarterly).
• Quarterly population estimates, including immigrants and non-permanent residents.
• Payroll employment, earnings and hours (SEPH), monthly.
• Government finance statistics, quarterly, and police-reported crime statistics, annually.

Key datasets

• Consumer Price Index, August 2026
  Headline and component CPI, with provincial detail.
  Updated: Monthly
• Labour Force Survey, September 2026
  Employment, unemployment rate and wages by province and industry.
  Updated: Monthly
• Population estimates, second quarter 2026
  Population, immigrants and non-permanent residents.
  Updated: Quarterly
• Table 18-10-0004-01: CPI, monthly
  CPI series back to 1914.
  Updated: Monthly
• Table 14-10-0287-01: Labour force characteristics
  Seasonally adjusted LFS estimates by province.
  Updated: Monthly
• Table 17-10-0009-01: Population estimates, quarterly
  Quarterly population for Canada, provinces and territories.
  Updated: Quarterly

APIs and downloads

• Web Data Service (WDS)
  Free REST API for tables and vectors, returning JSON or CSV; no key needed.
• The Daily
  Official release bulletin with links to every table behind each release.

When it publishes

Statistics Canada publishes releases in The Daily on dates set in its release schedule. The Labour Force Survey usually comes out on the first or second Friday of the month and the CPI around the middle of the following month.

How to use it to check a claim

1. Cite the table number (for example 18-10-0004-01) and the reference period.
2. Check whether a quarterly figure is a simple quarterly change (Statistics Canada's usual way) or annualized.
3. For LFS changes, check whether the release calls the change statistically significant.
4. For population, distinguish quarterly estimates from census counts.

Common mistakes

• Average weekly earnings include part-time workers and are a mean, not a median.
• Quarterly rent statistics are experimental estimates of asking rents, not rents paid.
• Population estimates for recent quarters are preliminary and revised each September.

Is there a Statistics Canada API?

Yes. The Web Data Service returns tables and individual vectors in JSON or CSV, free and without a key.

When is the next CPI release?

The release schedule on statcan.gc.ca lists every upcoming release date, including the CPI.

When will 2026 Census results come out?

Statistics Canada says the 2026 Census population counts will be released on February 10, 2027.

Questions answered using this source

• What is the inflation rate in Canada?
• What is the population of Canada?
• What is the unemployment rate in Canada?
• What is Canada's GDP growth?
• What is the average salary in Canada?
• What is the crime rate in Canada?
• When will 2026 Census results be released?

Links checked 14 October 2026. This page describes what the source publishes and gives no verdict on any claim.