Census learning centre
Census of Population web pages: Data tables, part 1

Release date: May 7, 2025

Catalogue number: 982000032021042

Hello and welcome to the "Census of Population web pages: Data tables, part 1" video.

This video is part of a video series on the Census of Population web pages. The purpose of this video is to explain where to find and how to extract census Data tables on the 2021 Census of Population website.

Subject
Census of Population web pages
Length
00:06:56
Cost
Free
Links

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Video: Census of Population web pages: Data tables, part 1 - Transcription

Welcome to the “Data tables, part 1” video.

(The title of the video "Census of Population web pages: Data tables, part 1" appears on screen.)

This video is part of the video series on the Census of Population web pages.

The purpose of this video is to explain where to find and how to extract census data tables on the 2021 Census of Population website.

What are Census of Population Data tables?

They are cross-tabulations that present a portrait of Canada based on various census topics, such as age, gender, income, and education. These cross-tabulations range in complexity and are available for various levels of geography.

(A 2021 Census of Population Data table for Canada is shown. This table shows Employment income (2) in columns crossed by Visible minority (15) in rows. Employment Income (2) includes Average employment income and Median employment income in dollars and Visible minority (15) includes the categories: Total – Visible minority, Total visible minority population, South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Arab, Latin American, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean, Japanese, Visible minority n.i.e., Multiple visible minorities, and Not a visible minority. A “Customize table” drop down box is open to display the other table variables that can be customized: Geography, Gender (3a), Age and first official language spoken (17), Immigrant and generation status (9), Highest certificate, diploma or degree (6A), and Census year (4).

When “age” is said, the drop-down menu under the dimension “Age and first official language spoken (17)” is clicked on and “Total – Age” is highlighted. When “gender” is said, the drop-down menu under the dimension “Gender (3a)” is clicked on and “Total-Gender” is highlighted. When “income” is said, the row of the table displaying “Employment income (2), Average employment income ($), and Median employment income ($)” is highlighted. When “education” is said, the drop-down menu under the dimension “Highest certificate, diploma or degree (6A)” is clicked on and “Total – Highest certificate, diploma or degree” is highlighted.)

To access the census Data tables, click on the “Census data” button located on the navigation bar of the Census of Population home page.

(The screen fades to the Census of Population main webpage. The “Census data” link, located below the search bar, is highlighted and clicked on. The "Data products, 2021 Census" page opens.)

Once on the “Data products, 2021 Census” page, go to the “Most requested” section and click on the “Data tables” link.

(The "Most Requested" section is highlighted. Next, the "Data tables" link is highlighted and clicked on, and the "Data tables, 2021 Census of Population" page opens.)

This will bring you to the “Data tables, 2021 Census of Population” page.

This page includes three sections:

  • The first one is called the “Select a topic” section, where you will find various options to search for 2021 Census of Population data tables.

    • (The “Select a topic” section is highlighted. The links for the various topics, the “browsed by variable” link, and the “map” link are highlighted.)

  • The second one is the “Data quality tables” section, where you will find tables that present data quality indicators, such as non-response rates and imputation rates for 2021 Census questionnaire questions and key variables.

    • (The “Data quality tables” section is highlighted. The link for the “Data quality tables” is clicked on and the “Data quality tables, 2021 Census of Population” page opens. The page is scrolled through to show the available tables. The screen returns to the “Data tables, 2021 Census of Population” page.)

  • The third one is the “Data tables from previous censuses” section. Clicking on any of the census years links, will give you access to data tables going back to the 1981 Census. It is important to remember that the layout of the census pages and the search tools will differ from census to census and that some functionalities may not be available for all censuses.

    • (The web page scrolls down to the “Data tables from previous censuses” section. The links for the previous censuses are highlighted. The “2016 Census” link is clicked on and the “Data tables, 2016 Census” page opens. The screen returns to the “Data tables, 2021 Census of Population” page and the “2001 Census (Archived)” link is clicked on. The “2001 Census Topic-based tabulations” page opens. The screen returns to the “Data tables, 2021 Census of Population” page and the “1981 Census (Archived)” link is clicked on. The “1981 Census of Population” page opens.)

For this video, we will focus on the first section, to show you the various options to find the 2021 Census Data tables.

(The screen returns to the “Data tables, 2021 Census of Population” page and the page scrolls up to the “Select a topic” section.)

From the “Select a topic” section, there are three options to search for data tables:

  • by topic

  • by variable, or

  • by geographic location (using a map).

(The “Select a topic” section is highlighted. The links for the various topics, the “browsed by variable” link, and the “map” link are highlighted as they are mentioned.)

Let’s start with the first option to look for data tables, which is by using the topic list.

(The topic list is highlighted.)

As an example, we will click on the “Education” link.

(The “Education” link is clicked on and the “Data tables, 2021 Census of Population” page opens.)

This will bring up a list of 84 data tables that are all using education variables.

You can either scroll down through the list to see all the tables or customize your search by clicking on the “Filter results” button to give you access to the filter tool.

(The page is scrolled through to view the tables containing education variables. The page is scrolled back up to the top and the “Filter results” button is highlighted and clicked on. A box appears below the “Filter results” button with the following filters: “Topic”, “Geography”, and “Sort by”.)

The “Topic” drop-down menu is prefilled with “Education”, but you can change it from here if needed.

(The "Topic" drop-down menu is clicked on to the show the all the census topics. The "Education" topic remains selected.)

The “Geography” drop-down menu will show you the available geographies. For this example, we will select “Census subdivision”.

(The “Geography” drop-down menu is clicked on to the show the available geographies. “Census subdivision” is selected.)

The “Sort by” drop-down menu is prefilled with “date”, and we will leave it as is.

(The “Sort by” drop-down menu is clicked on to the show the available filters. The available filters are “date”, “most popular”, “relevance”, and “title”.)

We will then click on the “Apply” button.

The number of tables has now been reduced to 27, as only the tables using education variables at the census subdivision level are being shown.

To remove the applied filters, click on the “Remove ‘Census subdivision’ filter” button.

Going back to the Data tables main page, we will now look at the second option to look for data tables, which is by variable.

Clicking on the “browsed by variable” link will take you to the “Browse data tables by variable, 2021 Census” page.

From this page, you have three options to look for data tables that are using specific variables:

  • By searching through a list of variables that are presented in alphabetical order.

  • By using the “Filter” search bar.

  • Or, by selecting the first letter of the name of the variable you are looking for.

(The list of variables is scrolled through, followed by a highlighting of the Filter search bar and the table with letters A-Z.)

For example, we will search for all data tables using the “Highest certificate, diploma or degree (15)” variable, by clicking on the letter H.

This will show you all variables starting with “H”.

(A list of variables starting with the letter “H” is scrolled through.)

Clicking on the “+” sign located to the left of these variables, will show you the breakdown of all categories and the attached notes found in each of these variables.

Selecting “Highest certificate, diploma or degree (15)” will show you the list of all data tables using this variable.

(The “Highest certificate, diploma or degree (15)” link is clicked on, and a pop-up window with two data tables containing this variable opens up. The pop-up window is closed by clicking on the “x” in the top right corner.)

Going back to the Data tables main page, we will now look at the third option to find data tables, which is by geographic location.

By clicking on the “map” link, you will be re-directed to the “GeoSearch” main page.

Here, you can use the GeoSearch mapping application to find census data related to a specific geographic area in Canada.

(The GeoSearch application is displayed on screen. The GeoSearch application is an interactive mapping tool designed to help users find geographic areas in Canada with available census data. The map displayed is of Canada, with options to search by place name or postal code. The map includes navigation tools and options to display data from the 2006 to 2021 Censuses. The legend indicates that the map shows provincial and territorial boundaries.)

As an example, if we start typing “Ottawa” into the search bar and choose “Ottawa, City (Census subdivision), Ontario”, we can see that there are 406 census data products available for this specific geographic area.

(The GeoSearch application changes to highlight the census subdivision of Ottawa, Ontario. The map highlights the Ottawa Census subdivision area in purple, with surrounding areas outlined in blue. The map includes tools for zooming and navigating, and a sidebar lists related geographic areas for Ottawa. The page scrolls down to show a table that lists results for Ottawa, City [Census subdivision], Ontario from the 2006 to 2021 Censuses. The table includes columns for Census year, Date, Topic, and Title (with links to tables and products). The topics covered include Instruction in the official minority language and commuting, among others. Other data entries include the "Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population" and "2016 Census Profile," “Age pyramids” and the “Income Explorer, 2021 Census”.)

Please note that, in addition to Data tables, these entries also include other data products and analytical products.

To narrow down the list of results to your specific need, you can use the “filter results” search bar.

For example, if you type “income” in the search bar, your search results will go down to 66 entries.

For more information on how to use the GeoSearch mapping application, click on the “Tutorials” button, located at the top right of the page.

(The page scrolls back to the top, above the GeoSearch application. The “Tutorials” button is highlighted and clicked on. The “Tutorials for GeoSearch” page opens. The screen fades and the text "Thank you for watching the 'Census of Population web pages: Data tables, part 1' video!" appears on screen.)

This concludes the “Data tables, part 1” video. Thank you for watching.

To view the “Data tables, part 2” video, that will show you how to customize data tables, go to the Census Learning Centre.

(The census logo appears with a link, which is also available to view here: Census learning centre. The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 978-0-660-75439-0 appears underneath the link.)

(The "Canada" wordmark appears.)

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