Frequently asked questions—Collective dwellings

Statistics Canada is asking for your help in completing the 2026 Census questionnaire for the residents of your facility or establishment. All patients or residents, live-in employees (and their family members), and owners and managers who live in your facility or establishment must be counted.

A collective dwelling is a commercial, institutional or communal residence in which a person or a group of people lives or could live. A collective dwelling must provide care or services or have common facilities shared by the occupants, such as a kitchen, dining room or bathroom.

Examples of collective dwellings include long-term care homes, residences for older adults, lodging or rooming houses, correctional facilities, group homes, hotels, motels, tourist establishments, hospitals, staff residences, military bases, and work camps.

Although you may have recently completed a questionnaire as part of another Statistics Canada survey, your participation in the 2026 Census is still required. By law, all residents living in facilities and establishments must be counted for the 2026 Census.

An official invitation letter from Statistics Canada will have Statistics Canada's address on the top left corner of the envelope, and the letter itself will include a Statistics Canada signature and the Canada wordmark at the bottom.

Invitation letters or emails with secure access codes are sent to administrators of collective dwellings for completing the census questionnaire online, except for lodging and rooming houses and Hutterite colonies. They will complete the census with an enumerator during field collection.

If you have any questions, please contact us by email at infostats [at] statcan.gc.ca (infostats[at]statcan[dot]gc[dot]ca) or by telephone at 1-877-949-9492. Respondents with access to TTY (for persons who have a hearing or speech impairment) should call 1-800-363-7629.

Statistics Canada will typically call you from 1-833-977-8287.

To confirm the legitimacy of a phone call, you can contact Statistics Canada by calling 1-877-949-9492.

Respondents with access to TTY (for persons who have a hearing or speech impairment) should call 1-800-363-7629. You can also visit the Statistics Canada website at Frequently asked questions—Information for survey participants​ (opens in a new window).

Invitation letters or emails with secure access codes are sent to administrators of collective dwellings for completing the census questionnaire online, except for lodging and rooming houses and Hutterite colonies. Administrators must answer a series of questions about the facility or establishment and complete the census questionnaire for the usual residents.

Based on the information provided for the facility or establishment, residents' information will be collected using one of the following methods:

• an online questionnaire
• a template provided by Statistics Canada
• the facility or establishment's administrative records
• a telephone interview.

Starting May 11, 2026, census employees will be following up with in-person visits to collective dwellings that did not complete the questionnaire online or via telephone.

Resident information will then be collected using paper questionnaires or administrative records. During this period, census employees will also make initial contact with lodging and rooming houses and Hutterite colonies to begin counting usual residents.

We understand and acknowledge that helping Statistics Canada collect resident information may be an inconvenience to you and your facility or establishment. To minimize the inconvenience, Statistics Canada provides several methods for submitting residents' information, including:

• an online questionnaire,
• a template provided by Statistics Canada,
• the facility or establishment's administrative records, or
• a telephone interview.

By law, all residents living in facilities and establishments must be counted for the 2026 Census. Participation is required under the authority of the Statistics Act. Statistics Canada is authorized to collect this information, and the administrator is required to provide it to the agency. The information collected is kept strictly confidential. Your assistance will help ensure that the residents living at your facility or establishment are counted in the 2026 Census.

The administrator will be asked to answer a short series of questions about the facility or establishment and provide the census information for each resident.

The census information for each resident will include their:

• first name and last name,
• date of birth, gender and sex at birth,
• status at the facility,
• marital status and common-law status, and
• languages.

Yes, you still need to complete the census questionnaire. Statistics Canada encourages administrators to complete the questionnaire as soon as possible.

The census counts people at the place where they usually live. This includes any person:

• whose main residence is at the facility or establishment, even if they are temporarily away,
• who does not have a residence elsewhere,
• who has been living at an institution (e.g., residence for older adults, hospital, prison or rehabilitation centre) for six months or more (i.e., who , were admitted on or before November 12, 2025), or
• who is live-in staff (e.g., employee, manager, owner) or their family.

You can provide the required information using the Excel template created by Statistics Canada, which can be downloaded from the online questionnaire. The template includes instructions on how to provide resident information. Once completed, the Excel template must be attached at Question 23 of the online questionnaire.

If you are unable to download the Excel template, please contact us by email at infostats [at] statcan.gc.ca (infostats[at]statcan[dot]gc[dot]ca) or by telephone at 1-877-949-9492. Respondents with access to TTY (for persons who have a hearing or speech impairment) should call 1-800-363-7629.

Invitation letters and emails are sent as early as possible to ensure that administrators have the time they need to complete the census questionnaire by Census Day.

If you are unable to complete the census questionnaire online, contact us by telephone at 1-833-977-8287.

Respondents with access to TTY (for persons who have a hearing or speech impairment) should call 1-866-753-7083. Otherwise, a census employee will follow up with you by phone or in person.

For the administrator

Statistics Canada needs your help to count everyone who usually lives at the establishment because an online census questionnaire was not received.

For the census cards and questionnaires that were dropped off, you will be need to:

1. distribute the census 7B cards to each room or unit
2. provide a 3A questionnaire (individual census questionnaire) and a privacy envelope to each person who usually lives at the establishment
3. instruct the resident to complete and return the questionnaire that day, and arrange for the questionnaires to be picked up by a census employee
4. keep the completed questionnaires in a secure location until the census employee returns to pick up the questionnaires.

For the residents

All residents should read the instructions on the census card and collect a questionnaire from the front desk, if required. Complete the questionnaire, seal it in the privacy envelope and return it to the front desk, where it will be picked up by a census employee.

Under the Statistics Act, Statistics Canada is authorized to collect this information, and the administrator is required to provide it to the agency. The information collected under the authority of the Statistics Act is kept strictly confidential.

Confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any personal information deemed confidential.

Your personal information is protected under the Privacy Act, which establishes how personal information is to be handled by Statistics Canada.

Yes. Privacy legislation in Canada allows the disclosure of personal information to Statistics Canada where required by law. In this case, the personal information is required under the Statistics Act.

The protection of personal information is governed by the Privacy Act, which establishes how personal information is handled by Statistics Canada and other federal government departments and agencies.

Identifiable information cannot be released to anyone outside Statistics Canada without the written consent of the person who would be identified.

Statistics Canada places the highest priority on protecting your privacy, as well as maintaining the confidentiality and security of completed questionnaires. Strict measures and procedures are followed to ensure that confidentiality is maintained at all times.

All Statistics Canada employees must take an oath of secrecy, which remains in effect for life—even after employment has ended. The Statistics Act states that all Statistics Canada employees are subject to fines and/or imprisonment should they reveal identifiable information derived from the census.

Only Statistics Canada employees with a need to know have access to personal and confidential information such as administrative records.