Statistics Canada

What You're Getting

Statistics Canada (StatCan) is the national statistical agency for Canada. It publishes authoritative data on the Canadian economy (GDP, national accounts, trade), labour market (LFS — unemployment, employment, wages), prices (CPI, housing), population (Census, vital statistics), and business (manufacturing, retail sales). The Web Data Service provides structured access to 5,000+ tables via a JSON API using Product IDs (PIDs).

Ingestion Strategy

Use Product IDs (PIDs) — 8-digit codes visible in the URL when browsing the StatCan website. Bulk CSV download is the most reliable path for full table history.

import requests, pandas as pd, io

STATCAN_API = "https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en"

def fetch_statcan_csv(pid: str) -> pd.DataFrame:
    url = f"{STATCAN_API}/dtblDownload/{pid}/download/{pid}.csv"
    r = requests.get(url)
    r.raise_for_status()
    return pd.read_csv(io.BytesIO(r.content), encoding="latin-1")

# CPI — Table 18-10-0004-01
cpi = fetch_statcan_csv("18100004")

# Labour Force Survey — Table 14-10-0287-01
lfs = fetch_statcan_csv("14100287")

Rate Limits & API Details

• No published rate limit
• Web Data Service: www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en
• Key PIDs: 18100004 (CPI), 14100287 (LFS), 36100434 (GDP), 12100121 (merchandise trade)
• JSON API: /getDataFromCubePidCoordAndLatestNPeriods/{pid}/{coord}/{n}

Schema Stability

Very stable. PIDs are permanent. CSV columns (REF_DATE, GEO, DGUID, VALUE, STATUS, SYMBOL) consistent for years. STATUS column carries quality flags: E = use with caution, F = suppressed, r = revised.

Data Quality Gotchas

• Encoding: bulk CSVs use latin-1 — specify on read
• STATUS flags: F values appear as blank VALUE — suppressed, not missing
• Revision cadence: LFS revised monthly; GDP revised quarterly with benchmark revisions every 5 years
• Large tables: trade by commodity × partner × province can reach millions of rows — filter via JSON API