The Civic Census is an official count of dwelling units and the population who are living in these units, though online and door-to-door physical recording of data.

The City of Calgary previously conducted a census. The census gathered:

• a count of dwelling units and dwelling structure type,
• population, and 
• other demographic information.

The City of Calgary first conducted a Civic Census in 1931 and continued periodically until 1958 when an annual count of population occurred until 2019. 

In March 2020, the 2020 Civic Census was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2020, funding for the annual Civic Census program was eliminated as part of the Mid-Cycle budget Adjustments and the Solutions for Achieving Value and Excellence (SAVE) program.

Council Direction 
Council has directed Administration to reinstate a biennial Municipal Census and to bring forward associated funding requirements for consideration as part of the 2027–2030 Service Plans and Budgets.

The annual Civic Census is not related to the census done by the Federal Government pursuant to the Statistics Act (Canada). The Federal Census collects different information than the Civic Census and is conducted every five years. Census questionnaires are mailed to every household in Canada. Households who do not complete their questionnaire are visited by a census worker. 

The Federal Census collects more detailed demographic information than the Civic Census on many topics including ethnicity, language, income and education. For data about Calgary from the Federal Census, visit Data about Calgary's population.