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Welcome to Census at School, an international classroom project

• What is Census at School?
• Will my child's privacy be protected?

What is Census at School?

Census at School is an international online survey project for teaching students in grades 4 to 12 about statistics and census taking. It began in the United Kingdom in 2000 and now includes Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Students answer interesting questions about themselves online, then learn to analyse their class results and compare them with Canadian and international results. The Canadian project is hosted by Statistics Canada, our country's national statistical agency.

Your child's teacher can register for the project and have the class complete this online survey at school. The students answer simple non-confidential survey questions about their lives and activities, such as their height, pets, breakfast foods and favourite subject at school.

The teacher then downloads a spreadsheet of the class results to use in teaching. The students can investigate themes, verify a hypothesis or learn how to analyse data and create graphs. Students can also compare their class data to results for Canada and other countries. They also learn about Canada's national census and its crucial role in providing information for the planning of education, health, transportation and other essential services.

Census at School survey results are not used for research purposes and serve only as tools for teaching and learning. This classroom activity supports cross-curricular teaching in mathematics, social sciences and information technology.

Will my child's privacy be protected?

All student responses are anonymous because no names, identification numbers or e-mail addresses are attached to them. At Statistics Canada, we pride ourselves on keeping all collected data confidential. Please read our privacy statement. The Census at School-Canada website complies with Internet security guidelines for the Government of Canada and for children's educational websites.