About

Canada by the Numbers explains Canada's big issues through official statistics, in charts that update themselves when the people who publish the numbers release new ones.

It is an independent project by Justin G. Bull. It is not a Government of Canada website, and it is not run by any of the bodies whose numbers it shows.

Every number comes from the body that publishes it: Statistics Canada, the Bank of Canada, federal departments and regulators, and provincial and city governments. Every source is a Canadian public body. Nothing comes from news stories, estimates by other websites or our own guesses.

Every chart names its source under the chart and links to the publisher's own page, so you can check the numbers where they were published. The Sources page lists every publisher and every dataset the site reads, how often each is updated, its licence, and when it was last read.

Code fetches each dataset straight from the publisher's own website. Nobody types a number in by hand, and nothing is copied from another site's charts.

Every time a dataset is read, code checks it before any chart uses it: that every date is a real date, in order and in step with how often the numbers are published; that every value is a real number or is marked as missing; that each place is one we recognize; and that the publisher, the unit and the licence are all named.

A dataset that fails a check is not shown as today's numbers. Its charts show the numbers from the last good read, with the line "Last read on <date>; the latest read did not succeed", or say "Data not available today" if there is no earlier read. Each dataset is re-read as often as its publisher updates it, and the date of the last read is on every chart.

We never group, merge or re-total the publisher's categories. If a publisher gives a total, that is the total you see; if it does not, we do not make one. We keep the publisher's own names, codes, units and footnotes.

We do not forecast. We do not give opinions: a chart's headline says what the numbers are, never why they moved or whether that is good or bad. We do not say that one thing caused another.

Some publishers release a list of records or hourly readings and no yearly or monthly totals: building permits, reported crimes, earthquakes, hourly electricity demand. For a small number of datasets we count or add up those records ourselves, so the numbers can be drawn as a chart. Each such chart is labelled "Counted by Canada by the Numbers" from the publisher's records, with a link to the records and one sentence on the method.

Five rules apply. First, the code only counts rows, or adds up or averages readings, over a calendar month or a calendar year. Second, it uses only the publisher's own date field and own categories, exactly as named, with no filtering, regrouping or renaming. Third, only complete months or years are shown. Fourth, where the publisher states a total anywhere, such as in an annual report, we compare our figure with it, and the dataset is held back if they disagree by more than rounding. Fifth, the dataset carries a note saying what was counted, from which records, and which published total, if any, it was compared with.

For most of these datasets no comparable published total could be found, so there was nothing to compare against; the note says so. These rules are the ones in force for now, and the site's owner may change them.

Some charts offer a view that we work out from the published numbers, such as the change from a year earlier. The page starts on the numbers as published, and a view is switched on only by the reader.

Every worked-out view is labelled under the chart as "Calculated by Canada by the Numbers" and says what it was calculated from. A downloaded file holds the published numbers and, in separate columns marked as ours, the worked-out ones.

A table can hold hundreds of possible lines. When a chart is drawn automatically, the line it opens on is chosen by a fixed rule in three steps. First, if the table has a total that the publisher publishes, the chart opens on that total. Second, if there is none and the table is used on a topic page, the chart opens on the line named in a short list kept for that purpose. Each entry on that list names the table, the line chosen and one sentence of reason, and follows a written rule: open on the measure the table is named for or the topic is about, in the publisher's headline form where the table offers one, such as seasonally adjusted, both sexes, all ages or Canada. Third, otherwise, the chart opens on the first line the publisher lists.

Automatic charts for Statistics Canada tables are planned, not yet built. The rule is written and tested, and nothing is picked chart by chart by hand.

Publishers mark some numbers: as preliminary, as revised, as to be used with caution, as too unreliable to publish, or as held back to protect privacy. Where a number carries a mark, the chart shows it as a ring on the line, and the table and the download show the publisher's own symbol next to it.

A missing or held-back number is left as a gap in the chart. It is never drawn as zero, and a line is never joined across it with an invented value.

A vertical marker labelled with a short phrase means the publisher changed its method at that point, so numbers before and after it may not be directly comparable. The line is not joined across the marker.

A chart shows this plain panel when its numbers could not be read from the publisher on the latest attempt, or did not pass our checks, and we have no earlier good read to show. When we do, the chart keeps the last good numbers and says "Last read on <date>; the latest read did not succeed" above its source line. It does not mean the figure is zero, and it does not mean the publisher has stopped publishing. An earlier copy is shown only if it still passes our checks today, and it is always dated. The read is tried again the next day, and the chart returns by itself when the numbers pass.

Numbers are re-read from each publisher as often as that publisher updates them, and at least once a month. Publishers release on their own schedules, from every day to once a year. A few datasets that change every business day, such as the exchange rate, are read daily. Most monthly releases are read once a week, and quarterly, yearly and occasional ones once a month. Reading a yearly dataset every day would only find the same numbers and give the publishers needless work.

The Sources page shows how often each dataset is updated and how often we read it. The Status page shows, dataset by dataset, when it was last read, when its newest figure is dated, when the next read is due, and whether anything went wrong.

Each chart shows when its numbers were published and the date we last read them. Nobody updates a chart by hand. Statistics Canada's tables are on a different, planned route, where the aim is to refresh each table within 48 hours of its release.

Some publishers turn away automated readers. We name them rather than work around them, and we never disguise our reader to get in. At the time of writing, the websites of the Yukon government, the Nunavut government, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada have refused our reader, as have the census profile download site and the Commissioner of Lobbying's registry. Several provinces and territories publish only in spreadsheets or PDF files that we cannot read automatically, so their numbers are missing here.

Statistics Canada's tables are being connected. Until they are, many topics have few or no charts, and those topics are marked as coming. The census is not yet included: Statistics Canada's first 2026 Census release is planned for February 10, 2027. Some sources were left out because their licence does not allow us to reuse the numbers.

Every dataset has its publisher's own licence, such as the Statistics Canada Open Licence or the Open Government Licence - Canada. The licence is named under each chart and on the Sources page. We use a source only when its licence lets us show its numbers, with credit, on a free site that carries no advertising. We leave out sources whose licence forbids reuse or requires permission.

Each chart's numbers can be downloaded as a CSV file that includes the source, the date we fetched them and the licence. Every chart can also be embedded on another site, with its source line attached.

The charts and words on Canada by the Numbers are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: you may copy, share and adapt them, as long as you credit Canada by the Numbers by name and link back to Canada by the Numbers. The numbers in the charts belong to the organizations that publish them and stay under each publisher's own licence, which is named under every chart and on the Sources page. Nothing here changes those licences, and none of them is replaced by this one.

If you think a number, a label or a source is wrong, please tell us, with the address of the page.

[To fill: how to reach us to report an error]

The shape of this site, topic pages that explain an issue through a short run of official charts, is modelled on UK by Numbers by Hannah Ritchie.