Economic accounts statistics

In this holiday special of Eh Sayers, our colleagues face off in a trivia showdown all about Canada’s Christmas tree industry.

Discover which nation first sparked the tradition, how much Canadian Christmas tree farmers earned in 2023, the surprising numbers behind exports and imports, and more festive facts.

After listening, you’ll be the go‑to expert on Christmas trees at your holiday party!

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree - Statistics Canada

Health data have never been more accessible. We have smart watches to count our steps, notifications about our screen times and apps to track our daily diets. 

Despite the futuristic tech, researchers are growing concerned. And they’re especially concerned about young Canadians.

Today we sat down with Rachel Colley, a senior health researcher at StatCan for a deep dive into Canada’s obesity, physical activity and screen time trends. And the new data from the Canadian Health Measures survey may surprise you.

The Daily — The prevalence of overweight and obesity is on the rise in Canada: New results from the Canadian Health Measures Survey, 2022 to 2024

 If you've changed your plans to visit the US recently, you're not alone. Nowadays, Canadians are more likely to be singing along to "Bobcaygeon" than "Sweet Home Alabama."
 

Today, we're sitting down with Jane Lin, of the Tourism Statistics Program at Statistics Canada, to dig into StatCan's tourism data and talk about how travel is different these days.

Travel and Tourism Statistics

In North America, where we lay our scene, 

From ancient friendship break to new trade tragedy, 

Of data on trade and tariffs, what might we glean? 

Join us as we speak with Guy Gellatly, Chief Economic Advisor, at Statistics Canada, as we explore what’s been going on with trade with our closest neighbour, what the early numbers suggest about the conflict, and what impact it might have on Canada’s economy. 

Focus on Canada and the United States

Is that Canada in the corner? In the spotlight? Are we losing our religion?
 
 The census found that 12.6 million people reported no religious affiliation in 2021, more than 1/3 of Canada's population. But is there more to the picture?
 
 With guests Simon-Pierre Lacasse, Senior Analyst at StatCan, and Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo, we're exploring what's driving this trend, whether "no religion" means "no spirituality," and how the story varies from spiritual British Columbia to the cultural Catholicism of Quebec to the freshly painted churches of Atlantic Canada. 

The Daily — Exiting homelessness: Results from the 2022 Canadian Housing Survey

For more information:
Beyond urban and rural: Rethinking the social geography of Canada

Over two thirds (70%) of Canadians experienced a cyber security incident in 2022. The strategies used by bad actors are getting more and more complex. Many of us are inundated with what feels like never-ending phishing emails, scam text messages and fraudulent phone calls. It’s rare to talk to someone who hasn’t experienced some form of a cyber attack. 

The situation is no different for Canadian businesses. Identity theft, scams, fraud, and ransomware are only some of the ways cyber attackers are targeting businesses today. One cyber security breach can cost a business thousands of dollars and valuable time resources to neutralize. We wanted to know: Is cyber crime on the rise in Canada? What is the relatively new phenomenon of cyber risk insurance? And in what way are consumers affected when a business experiences a security breach? 

The Canadian Survey of Cyber Security and Cyber Crime has published new data and, in this episode, we sat down with Howard Bilodeau, an economist at Statistics Canada to answer our questions about how cyber security is changing for businesses and what it means for the rest of us.  

As we begin to use these new versions of AI, our jobs are destined to change. So, what will an average day of work look like a decade from now? Which jobs will AI impact the most? And is AI coming to replace our jobs altogether?   

In this episode, we sat down with AI expert Tahsin Mehdi, an economist in the social analysis and modeling division of Statistics Canada, to answer our questions about how AI will transform our work lives in Canada. 

But what factors influence worker productivity? And why does it matter if Canadians are less productive? As a matter of fact, what even is productivity? In this episode, we asked Guy to help us understand how we got to this point and why it matters for Canadians.  

Today we're talking food inflation with StatCan's resident smart cookie Taylor Mitchell.

Analyst Rachel Tsitomeneas joins us to dive into the findings. 

In this episode, we speak with Randy Morin and Belinda kakiyosēw Daniels, who share their knowledge of the Cree language with learners at the Nêhiyawak Language Experience, about the wisdom encoded in Indigenous languages, as well as the opportunities for these languages and the barriers they face. 

The stockings were hung by the audio mixer with care,
In hopes that a special guest soon would be there.

Timothy Caulfield, misinformation/disinformation expert, author, University of Alberta professor, and member of the Order of Canada, and Eric Rancourt, Assistant Chief Statistician at StatCan, join us to explore the challenges posed by our information environment and what can be done to counter misinformation. 

While every census is special, the 2021 Census was historic. It was the first to include a question about gender, making Canada the first country to collect and publish data on gender diversity from a national census. 

In this episode, we explore gender with drag king Cyril Cinder and we talk Census 2021 with StatCan’s Anne Milan. 

Join us for a new kind of gender reveal.

• The Daily - Canada is the first country to provide census data on transgender and non-binary people 
• Filling the gaps: Information on gender in the 2021 Census 
• 2021 Census: Sex at birth and gender - the whole picture 

 Laurent Martel, director of the Centre for Demography at Statistics Canada, joins us to explore what demographic data can tell us about this person, as well as the implications of Canada’s changing demographics and its rapid population growth.  

Guy Gellatly, Chief Economic Advisor at StatCan, joins us at the mic to break down the CPI and answer our questions about the economy. What’s the ideal inflation rate? Is no inflation the best kind of inflation? And what is a deflationary spiral?  

Choices we make about our homes impact the environment: their location and how much we need to use a car to get around, the heat source that they use, the materials used in their construction. 

At the same time, the climate impacts our homes: when severe weather strikes and causes damage to our homes, we have no choice but to rebuild, and even if we escape unscathed, we still have to decide how much to change our lifestyles to adapt to a changing climate. 

Andrew DeFazio, Climate Change Advisor at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) joins us to explore how we can climate-proof our housing strategy and home-proof our climate strategy. 

But something strange happened during the pandemic: in 2020 the poverty rate fell. And it fell quite a bit. In fact, the poverty rate dropped in one year almost as much as it had in the four preceding years.

But why? What happened? Will the poverty rate continue to fall? And what happens if it hits zero? How would health outcomes change? Education outcomes? People's general happiness and well-being? 

Has there ever been a time and place in Canada where the poverty rate was zero? The closest may be the Mincome Experiment of the 1970s in Manitoba.   Many Canadians have never heard of this guaranteed income experiment, but it offers a glimpse at what eliminating poverty might look like. 

To learn more, we spoke with Burton Gustajtis an economist from Statistics Canada, Evelyn Forget, a Professor of Economics and Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba and Kevin Milligan, a Professor of Economics in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia.

Sylvia was appointed Canada’s first and only female Chief Statistician in 1972, but she didn’t get there by playing by the rules. She was ambitious but grew up in a world where many thought that it was shameful to be female and have a career. 

Sylvia was a Jewish woman in economics, and even after she earned a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, she was denied a job with the United Nations because of her gender. Nevertheless, she had a storied career, becoming the Chairman of the Economic Council of Canada then the Chief Economist  at the OECD. But we're not focusing on her career highlights. We're going behind the scenes to look at how she challenged herself to succeed, becoming both a respected economist and mother, and how she handled setbacks, and discrimination, all while staying true to herself and demonstrating the integrity for which she's remembered today.

We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sylvia Ostry’s appointment as Chief Statistician. In this episode of Eh Sayers, featuring interviews with her sons, Adam Ostry and Jonathan Ostry, we are pleased to introduce you to this remarkable woman and to share with you eight pieces of advice inspired by her life.