← The Universe · Country fact sheet · No. 1Updated 29 Oct 2026 · 2021 Census weights

Canada

488 locals speak for 29.0 million adults across Canada.

Locals488People in situations, drawn from public sources: 410 from across Canada and 78 more built around particular interests, such as gaming and snowboarding, all matched to the census.

Adults they speak for29.0MEvery adult in the 2021 Census sample, weighted: 28,983,298.

Have a close local98.5%A local whose situation fits theirs closely.

A typical local52,000adults spoken for (the median). Nathaëlle speaks for the most: 274,000.

Where Canada's locals live

about 7,000 to 274,000 adults

West Coast 49 locals · 13.9% of adultsPrairies 86 locals · 17.4% of adultsOntario 150 locals · 38.8% of adultsQuebec 88 locals · 22.9% of adultsAtlantic 35 locals · 6.7% of adultsNorth 2 locals · 0.3% of adults

Each dot is one local, at the town in their story, sized by how many adults they speak for. The faces are the local who speaks for the most adults in each province. 367 are placed at a named town; 43 are placed in their province to match their setting, because their story names no town.

Where adults live

Share of adults · locals

BC13.9%49 locals

AB11.1%55 locals

SK2.9%14 locals

MB3.4%17 locals

ON38.8%150 locals

QC22.9%88 locals

NL1.4%8 locals

NB2.1%11 locals

PE0.4%3 locals

NS2.7%13 locals

YT · NT · NU0.3%2 local

Locals lean urban (217 of 410 live in a city, 111 in a suburb, 82 in a small town or the country), but each one counts only for the census people like them, so every share stays true to where adults really live.

Life stage

Share of adultsLocals in that stage

Student

6.5%27 locals

Starting out

10.3%61 locals

Young family

9.9%41 locals

School-age family

19.3%67 locals

Settled

13.7%80 locals

Empty nest

17.9%59 locals

Retired

22.4%75 locals

Life stage, not age, is how a local is matched to the census: a retired widow and a retired farmer share a stage and still read an ad differently.

How money feels

31%39%29%

Comfortable 31.4%Getting by 39.2%Squeezed 29.4%

Squeezed: below the poverty line, in core housing need, or in the bottom three income deciles. Comfortable: the top three. Everyone else is getting by.

City, suburb or country

25%46%29%

City 24.5%Suburb 46.1%Small town or rural 29.4%

28.5%rent their home

6.4%new to Canada (arrived 2016 to 2021, or here temporarily)

Language at home

66%20%14%

English 66.2%French 20.2%Another language 13.6%

76locals write in French, some or all of the time

20.2%of adults speak French at home

The groups they stand for

Share of adults

Every adult in the census falls in one of seven groups by life stage, and within it a type by how money feels and where they live. Each local wears the label of the people they speak for, with their ages and gender from the census. The labels describe who a local stands for; they never decide what a local thinks.

Students

In school or college full time, most still finding their feet. 1.9M adults, 27 locals.

Comfortable, suburban1.6%
Getting by, suburban1.1%
Squeezed, city1.1%
Getting by, city0.6%

Starting Out

10%

Under 35, working or looking, no kids yet. 3.0M adults, 61 locals.

Comfortable, suburban1.9%
Getting by, suburban1.6%
Squeezed, city1.4%
Getting by, city1.3%

Settled Singles and Couples

14%

Working age, no kids at home. 4.0M adults, 80 locals.

Comfortable, suburban2.4%
Getting by, city1.9%
Getting by, suburban1.8%
Squeezed, city1.7%

Young Families

10%

Parents with a child under six. 2.9M adults, 41 locals.

Getting by, suburban2.4%
Comfortable, suburban1.6%
Getting by, small-town and rural1.3%
Squeezed, suburban1.1%

School-Age Families

19%

Parents of school-age kids and teens at home. 5.6M adults, 67 locals.

Comfortable, suburban5.1%
Getting by, suburban4.4%
Getting by, small-town and rural2.3%
Comfortable, small-town and rural1.7%

Empty Nesters

18%

Older working age, kids grown or never had them. 5.2M adults, 59 locals.

Comfortable, suburban3.8%
Getting by, suburban2.7%
Getting by, small-town and rural2.6%
Comfortable, small-town and rural2.1%

Retirees

22%

Out of the workforce, mostly 65 and over. 6.5M adults, 75 locals.

Getting by, suburban4.0%
Squeezed, small-town and rural3.9%
Getting by, small-town and rural3.1%
Squeezed, city2.9%

Who speaks for the most people

Adults spoken for

Nathaëlle Suburb, QuebecSchool-Age Families · comfortable, suburban · A35-54 · mostly 35-54 · about half womenSpeaks for 140k women and 133k men
A mother of two fast-growing teenagers in Laval, she shops Carrefour Laval and the English sites of US brands as easily as French ones, buying from whoever has the kids' sizes in stock first.
274k
Heather Suburb, OntarioSchool-Age Families · suburban · A35-54 · mostly 35-54 · about half womenSpeaks for 100k women and 88k men
Parent of two at school, juggling work, lunches and the grocery bill
188k
Ginette City, QuebecRetirees · squeezed, city · A65+ · mostly 65 and over · 57% womenSpeaks for 103k women and 76k men
Her triplex in Hochelaga was bought by a numbered company that is offering her $5,000 to leave the apartment she has rented for 27 years, and she is contesting the 'rénovictions' at the Tribunal administratif du logement while living on OAS, GIS and a small RRQ pension.
179k
Huguette City, QuebecRetirees · squeezed, city · A65+ · mostly 65 and over · 57% womenSpeaks for 103k women and 76k men
Her landlord in Hochelaga sent a renewal notice with a big increase, and she has a few weeks to decide whether to refuse it and go to the Tribunal administratif du logement.
179k
Denis Small town, QuebecRetirees · squeezed, small-town and rural · A65+ · mostly 65 and over · 57% womenSpeaks for 103k women and 76k men
Retired forestry worker in Matane who has been on the provincial waitlist for a hip replacement for over a year, can barely walk to the mailbox, and pays a neighbour's son to shovel and bring in wood for the stove.
179k

How well the locals cover Canada

99%

Close match 98.5%Loose match 1.5%No local yet 0.0%

Every adult in the census sample is matched to the nearest local.

Data label and IAB segments

For media plans

The same label every debrief ends with, for the whole country: where the locals come from, how they are weighted, and who they stand for in the IAB Tech Lab Audience Taxonomy 1.1, the categories ad platforms and agencies buy audiences in. In the style of the IAB Tech Lab Data Transparency Standard, not a certified label.

Data label

Provider: Crowdsim, Ontario, Canada (hello@crowdsim.ca)
What it is: 488 AI locals, each standing for a share of real adults. Not a list of real or identifiable people.
Who they stand for: Adults 18 and over in Canada
Data source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population, Public Use Microdata File (adapted)
Method: Modelled from census microdata. No personal data, cookies, device IDs or customer lists.
Weighting: Each local counts by the census adults most like them; nobody counts more for saying more.
Coverage: 98.5% of 28,983,298 adults have a close local
Refresh: Census figures fixed to their release; the locals updated 29 Oct 2026
Taxonomy: IAB Tech Lab Audience Taxonomy 1.1
Expansion: None. Cross-device: not applicable.

The people they stand for, in IAB segments

Segment	IAB id	Share
Age
Age 18-24	3, 4	10%
Age 25-34	5, 6	17%
Age 35-44	7, 8	17%
Age 45-54	9, 10	16%
Age 55-64	11, 12	18%
Age 65+	13, 14, 15	22%
Gender
Female	49	51%
Male	50	49%
Life stage
Parents with Children	98	29%
Adults (no children)	96	24%
Retired	40	22%
Empty Nest (Adults, Children left home)	101	18%
Student + Adults (no children)	41, 96	6%
Home
Home Owners	138	71%
Renters	139	28%
Language
en	158 (en)	66%
fr	158 (fr)	20%

Shares of adults, from the census. An age band covers two or three IAB ranges because the census groups ages that way.