Has Canada become a sedentary nation? 

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

Calllllll-i-forrrrr-nia... here we come?

 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

Two countries, both alike in dignity, 

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. 

What is it that helps someone transition from homeless to housed? We’re looking at new analysis of data from the Canadian Housing Survey to explore exactly that. In conversation with Peter Tilley, the CEO of the Ottawa Mission, and Jeff Randle, Chief of the Housing Need Project section at Statistics Canada, we’re asking why homelessness (and homelessness data!) is more complex than you might think, what factors most often led to regaining housing, and why housing can be challenging to maintain even after it’s been regained. 

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

It might not surprise you that your relationships with friends and family affect your well-being. Same with your health and your job. But what about the place where you live? Whether you live in the downtown core of a major city or a commuter town or a rural community, what impact does this have on your life satisfaction, loneliness and sense of belonging? StatCan’s Lauren Pinault joins us today at the mic to explore how the places we live affect our well-being.

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.  

AI is here and it’s here to stay. Apps like ChatGPT are now allowing us to perform complex tasks with the click of a button.  

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. 

Canada’s workforce is among the most educated in the world. But when it comes to worker productivity, we’ve seen a real slump over the past few years. The quarterly data published by StatCan in June 2024 confirms Canadian workers are continuing to underperform compared to our neighbours to the south. This comes as no surprise to this episode’s guest, Guy Gellatly, Chief Economic Advisor at StatCan. The latest quarterly numbers are a continuation of an on-going decline in Canada’s productivity that economists have been tracking for years.  

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.  

We can try our best, but its not always easy knowing what's best for the environment. The world is complicated, and it isn't as simple as reduce, reuse, recycle—though that's a great place to start!
In the immortal words of Kermit the Frog, "It's not easy bein' green."
We have two stories exploring that theme. The first is one we made in-house asking just how green our digital world really is, and the second comes from the Simply Science podcast exploring the world of urban forests.