Civic Census General Information
The Civic Census is an official count of dwelling units and the population who are living in these units, by the door to door physical collection and recording of data.
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.
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 once every five years in the month of May (i.e., 2001, 2006, 2011, etc.).
In the Federal Census, 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 information than the annual Civic Census on many topics including ethnicity, language, income and education. For data about Calgary from the Federal Census, please visit the Data about Calgary webpage, or for more specific questions contact socialresearch@calgary.ca.
For information about the 2021 Federal Census and employment opportunities, please visit 2021 Census.
For access to the most recent Census Results books, please visit our results page.
If you are interested in historical Census information, please visit the open data catalogue or learn more about Calgary's Geodemographics.
For more information contact census@calgary.ca