Census Plus is an authoritative catalog of the Canadian population based on data collected during the 2021 Census by Statistics Canada. This Esri Advanced Demographics dataset for Canada is sourced from data supplied by Environics Analytics.
Census Plus includes core census information, including age and sex by 5-year age cohorts, family households by presence of children, children by age group, housing type and tenure, as well as after tax income.
New in 2021, the Census introduced the concept of gender and makes the distinction between sex at birth and gender. This introduced the terms Male+ and Female+ within the Census Plus variable descriptions. Male+ includes cisgender and transgender men while Female+ includes cisgender and transgender women. Due to the small size of the non-binary population, non-binary persons are distributed over these two categories to maintain confidentiality.
For this product, Environics Analytics developed a set of proprietary algorithms for adjusting Census data. This dataset is enhanced to fill in missing values where data has been suppressed by Statistics Canada and to correct for random rounding, while adhering to the content or substance of the original Census. This work ensures that there are no missing values in Census Plus and the variables add up within thematic categories and across all levels of geography.
Data source
Release: | October 2023. |
Data Vintage: | 2021 |
Data: | Data is provided by Environics Analytics. |
Base Level Geography: | Dissemination area. |
Geography levels
Census Plus variables are available at the dissemination area level of geography.
CensusPlus documents
Refer to the following reference documents:
Example use cases
Sample questions that can be answered using Census Plus data may include:
- What is the population breakdown by age within my trade area?
- How many women aged 25 to 34 live in the Calgary CMA?
- What can the data reveal about the demographics within my trade area?
- How many households in Canada speak Italian at home?
- Which municipalities have an average household income over $100,000?
Example use cases for Census Plus include:
 | Advertisers can use CensusPlus’ demographic data to analyze custom trade areas to help locate attractive target markets for more effective direct mail campaigns. |
 | Retailers can enhance their customer databases with demographic profiles to better understand their customers. CensusPlus’ multicultural data can also help users analyze their customers to make more informed decisions about how to meet their needs. |
 | Creating target sets by grouping together demographically similar customer segments can help marketing strategists develop meaningful messaging that is more likely to resonate with current and prospective customers. |