Sexual orientation question to appear on census for first time in 2026

Canadian residents will be asked about their sexual orientation in next year's national census, CBC News has learned.

While Statistics Canada has asked about sexual orientation in past surveys, next year will mark the first time the question will appear on the long-form census questionnaire that will go out to 25 per cent of Canadian residents in May 2026.

The questions will not be included in the short-form census that goes out to 75 per cent of Canadian residents.

The long-form census will also feature questions about homelessness and health problems for the first time.

The questions for the census, which is conducted every five years, were approved by Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet on June 13. Most of them touch on the usual census topics such as the ethnic background of respondents and their families, education, housing, employment, citizenship and languages spoken.

While Canadians are required by law to fill out the questionnaires, their answers remain confidential. They're used to produce statistics about Canada's population and often help inform where services are needed across the country.

The question will provide a more complete picture of where people of different sexual orientations live across the country, and their socioeconomic backgrounds.

The questions to be asked in next year's census include a respondent's sex at birth, with the option to select male or female. Respondents are also asked to provide their gender, with the option to choose man (or boy), woman (or girl) or write in their own answer.

The census questionnaire also provides a definition of gender to guide respondents.

"Gender refers to an individual's personal and social identity as a man (or boy), a woman (or a girl) or a person who is not exclusively a man (or a boy) or a woman (or a girl) for example, non-binary, agender, gender fluid, queer or two-spirit."

Question 36, which is only to be asked for those aged 15 years and older, asks directly about sexual orientation, explaining that the information is being collected "to inform programs that promote equal opportunity for everyone living in Canada to share in its social, cultural and economic life."

Respondents can choose between "heterosexual (i.e. straight), lesbian or gay, bisexual or pansexual" or write in their own answer.

Sébastien Larochelle-Côté, director general of socioeconomic statistics and social data integration for Statistics Canada, says the question of sexual orientation was identified as a data gap about Canada's population in consultations leading up to the census questionnaire.

"That's the primary reason why we are including sexual orientation in the census of population," Larochelle-Côté said.

He said this will also allow the census data to be paired with information about transgender and non-binary people in Canada that the agency has been collecting through separate surveys.

"We'll be able to get insights about the 2SLGBTQ+ population as a whole. And so that, in our view, is going to be providing very, very insightful information."

Larochelle-Côté said the answers will also help inform government decision-making.

"We know that sexual orientation has been identified as a motive of discrimination by the Canadian Human Rights Act," he said. "We know as well that there is a federal task force that recommended the 2SLGBTQ+ population as an equity group … we wanted to move with the times."

Larochelle-Côté said other countries like the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand also ask about sexual orientation in their censuses, but he said it has not yet been asked in the United States, which conducts a census every 10 years.

Information about homelessness in Canada is another information gap that Statistics Canada is hoping to fill. It also comes as the federal government has vowed to increase home-building across the country.

Larochelle-Côté said Statistics Canada won't be able to reach those who are currently homeless on May 12, 2026, because the questionnaire is sent to homes and collective dwellings. But it will provide more information about people who have been homeless.

The first question will ask whether a respondent "stayed in a shelter, on the street or in parks, in a makeshift shelter, in a vehicle or in an abandoned building" over the previous 12 months. The second will ask whether a respondent has lived temporarily with friends, family or others over the previous 12 months because they had nowhere else to live.

Larochelle-Côté said the answers to those questions will shed light on where people are experiencing homelessness and can be cross-referenced with the socioeconomic characteristics of a respondent from the answers to other census questions.

"We'll be able to have a better understanding of who is most at risk of experiencing homelessness," he said.

Next year's census will also include new questions about the health of respondents, including whether the respondent has difficulty seeing, hearing, walking using stairs or using their hands or fingers. It will ask respondents if they have difficulty learning, remembering or concentrating, whether they have emotional, psychological or mental health conditions as well as whether they have other health problems or long-term conditions that have lasted or are expected to last for six months or more.

The census will include a general question about how the respondent rates their health.

This will help "better predict the demand for health-care services across the country, down to the lowest level of geography possible," said Larochelle-Côté.

While similar questions have been asked in other surveys, Larochelle-Côté said this will be the first time they are asked in the Canadian census.

Details of next year's census will be made public on July 4.