The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the

2016 Canadian census The 2016 Canadian census was an enumeration of Canadian residents, which counted a population of 35,151,728, a change from its 2011 population of 33,476,688. The census, conducted by Statistics Canada, was Canada's seventh quinquennial census. ...

, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is slightly lower than the response rate for the 2016 census. It recorded a population of 36,991,981, a 5.2% increase from 2016.

Planning

Consultation on census program content was from September 11 to December 8, 2017. The census was conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, and was contactless as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

. The agency had considered delaying the census until 2022. About 900 supervisors and 31,000 field enumerators were hired to conduct the

door-to-door Door-to-door is a canvassing technique that is generally used for sales, marketing, advertising, evangelism or campaigning, in which the person or persons walk from the door of one house to the door of another, trying to sell or advertise a pro ...

survey of individuals and households who had not completed the census questionnaire by late May or early June. Canvassing agents wore masks and maintained a physical distance to comply with COVID-19 safety regulations.

Questionnaire

In early May 2021, Statistics Canada began sending mailings to households throughout Canada containing instructions for completing the census questionnaire. The questionnaires could be completed by returning the paper questionnaire, or by phone or online by using an access code provided in the mailing. Statistics Canada expected about 80% of households to complete the questionnaire online. It was also available in

large-print Large-print (also large-type or large-font) refers to the formatting of a book or other text document in which the typeface (or font) are considerably larger than usual to accommodate people wh