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About us

The Census at School project

• What is Census at School?
• What teachers are saying.
• Objectives
• Role of Statistics Canada
• The team

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What is Census at School?

Census at School is an international online project that engages students from grades 4 to 12 in statistical enquiry. The project began in the United Kingdom in 2000 and now includes participation from schools in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

Students in each participating country anonymously fill in an online survey in class. They answer non-confidential questions about topics such as their height, the time it takes to travel to school, and their favourite subject at school. The responses become part of a national database, which is later added to an international database that is maintained in the United Kingdom.

Teachers can access the results of their own class' survey in the form of a spreadsheet to use in teaching. Students enjoy comparing their class data to summary tables of Canadian results. They can also request random responses from the international database to compare themselves with students in other countries.

Some of the questions on the Canadian survey are common to all participating countries; others were developed in Canada. None of the survey questions asks for confidential or identifiable personal information. Responses remain anonymous as no names or identification numbers are attached to them.

This project combines fun with learning, to the delight of hundreds of thousands of students around the world who have already participated. They discover how to use and interpret data about themselves as part of their classroom learning in math, social sciences or information technology. They also learn about the importance of the national census in providing essential information for planning education, health, transportation and many other services.

Census at School offers students a golden opportunity to be involved in the collection and analysis of their own data and to experience what a census is like.

What teachers are saying...

"I used Census at School to introduce the Statistics unit in my Grade 11 Mathematic Foundation course. The students used a printed handout of the class results to work with the "Do you have big feet?" activity. This gave me an idea of their prior knowledge and skills in sampling, analyzing data, graphing data, looking for bias in results and drawing conclusions."
-Joanna Wilson, Grade 11 teacher, Digby, Nova Scotia

"My students got more out of this project than any text book or teacher could communicate."
-Larry Scanlon, primary-intermediate special education teacher, Waterloo, Ontario

"We worked on measurement, data management, graphic displays of data, estimating, and different ways of recording data. It's a lot more fun to use data of a personal nature."
-Kimberly Burstall, primary teacher, Halifax, Nova Scotia

"It's easier for students to create graphs using real information. I think it's a great way to teach kids about the census."
-Danuta Woloszynowicz, teacher librarian working with intermediate classes, Barrie, Ontario

"Census at School allows for joint applications in mathematics, French and social sciences. When students use these data to answer questions that matter to them, they gain awareness that mathematics is a precious tool for understanding the world we live in."
-France Caron, math education professor, Université de Montréal, Québec

"This survey gave the students the opportunity to 'connect' with the outside world. In our social studies curriculum, we discuss the importance of our roles in society. The survey reinforced our uniqueness and our sameness at the same time!"
-Brenda Hillaby, Grade 5 teacher, Aurora, Ontario

"Census at School offers generalist teachers an exciting tool for engaging their students in project-based mathematical learning within a social studies context."
-Ralph Mason, math education professor, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg

"I have been participating in the Census at School program for the last two years, and love it! I use it to do an entire unit on data analysis. My students look back on this as one of their most favourite parts of the year in Math. They use the data to learn about population, sample, survey design, and then analyze the data for mean, median, mode, range. They also draw graphs of all sorts, exploring the relationships between data and sharing the conclusions that can be drawn from that type of information."
- Julie Hearn, Grade 6 and 7 teacher, Maple Ridge, B.C.

The objectives of Census at School

Census at School aims to:

• provide real data for data management activities across the curriculum;
• show how information and communications technology (ICT) can be used effectively in teaching and learning;
• raise awareness of the national census, how it gathers data, and its benefits to society;
• develop statistical literacy skills in students.

Classroom participation in this project is completely voluntary.

The role of Statistics Canada

The Canadian component of the international Census at School project is run by Statistics Canada, the nation's statistical agency. This project fits into Statistics Canada's Education Outreach program, which promotes statistical literacy among young people.

Statistics Canada's mandate is to produce information to help Canadians better understand their country-its population, economy, culture and society. It conducts the national census and hundreds of surveys on virtually every aspect of Canadian life, under the authority of the Statistics Act. (See About Statistics Canada)

Unlike Statistics Canada's official census, the Census at School survey is voluntary, used only for educational purposes and not for research. Therefore, the Statistics Act does not apply to it.