OTTAWA, June 25, 2025 – New Topics in 2026 Census: Canada’s 2026 census will include new questions on sexual orientation, homelessness, and general health to address gaps in national data.
Click here to view the official questionnaire on the Government of Canada's website.
Focus on Hybrid Work: The census will add questions about commuting patterns to understand how hybrid and remote work arrangements have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sexual Orientation Data Collection: For the first time, Canadians aged 15 and older will be asked about their sexual orientation to support more inclusive policies and provide better data on 2SLGBTQI populations.
Homelessness and Housing: New questions will gather data on recent and current experiences of homelessness, building on previous efforts to improve understanding of housing issues, including in Indigenous, rural, and remote communities.
Additional Updates: The census will ask more about military service, update language to be more inclusive and gender-neutral, and resume asking questions about religion to this information more frequently.
Details of next year's census will be made public on July 4.
Related news articles:
CBC - Sexual orientation question to appear on census for first time in 2026
