Canadians Will Get Good Population Data For the First Time in Ten Years

Canada used to have a mandatory longform census, held every five years. Then, in 2010, the government, claiming the privacy of Canadians was being invaded, scrapped the census and replaced it with a shorter, voluntary National Household Survey.

The move was not well received, to put it lightly. The head of Statistics Canada, the department that administers the census, quit in protest. Social scientists said they wouldn't use the NHS data.

During the most recent Canadian election, however, the Liberal party campaigned on a promise that they would bring the long-form census back—and won.

On Thursday morning, it was announced that the long-form census was coming back. The government is acting quickly, it says, so that it will have enough time to prepare for the next scheduled census in 2016.

Access to accurate census data is invaluable to academics, researchers, politicians, and increasingly, amateur data enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. Good census data offers insight into the lives of Canadians at a scale and scope that is, quite literally, country-wide. Historical census data is freely available to anyone through the Statistics Canada website and the government's Open Data portal.

The announcement comes just a day after Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was sworn into office, an event in which he named his new cabinet—half of which are women—and re-named the country's Environment department to "Ministry of Environment and Climate Change."

The re-introduction, according to Navdeep Bains, Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, means that "communities will once again have access to the high-quality data they require to make decisions that will truly reflect the needs of their people, businesses, institutions and organizations."

As Ishmael Daro previously reported for Motherboard:

Canada has conducted a regular census almost since its founding. But in the 1970s the federal government introduced a longer census questionnaire with more detailed demographic questions that was sent out to about a fifth of all households countrywide. While everyone still had to complete a short census which merely counted population, it was the "long-form" results that provided the kind of granular data that all levels of government relied on when formulating policies on poverty, transportation, education, and much more.

Because Canada's previous government, led by the Conservative Party, scrapped the mandatory long-form census in 2010—just before the planned 2011 census—the most recent long-form census results available are actually from 2006.

"We committed to setting a higher bar for openness and transparency in Ottawa," Minister Bains is quoted in the release as saying. "Government and its information must be open by default, and it is time to shine more light on government to make sure it remains focused on the people it was created to serve."