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Population of the federal public service by age band

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About the data

When reading the table below, the following information applies:

  • Source of information: Pay System as of March 31 of each year.
  • The federal public service consists of 2 population segments: the core public administration and separate agencies.
  • Departments and agencies in the core public administration are named in schedules I and IV of the Financial Administration Act. The Treasury Board is the employer of this segment of the federal public service.
  • Separate agencies are named in Schedule V of the Act. As independent employers, represented separate agencies conduct their own negotiations (subject to the President of the Treasury Board’s approval of their mandates) and set terms and conditions of employment within their organizations. This includes establishing the organizational structure and classification of positions. Unrepresented separate agencies consult with TBS with respect to any new or modified terms and conditions of employment that are not established through the collective bargaining process, to ensure broad alignment with those in the core public administration.
  • Included in this information are:
    • active employees of all employment tenures (indeterminate, term, casual and student)
    • Governor in Council appointees
    • deputy ministers
    • federal judges
  • Excluded from this information are:
    • inactive employees (i.e., employees on leave without pay)
    • ministers’ exempt staff
    • employees locally engaged outside of Canada
    • Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Regular Force members
    • RCMP Civilian members
    • Canadian Armed Forces members
  • Population counts for the following separate agencies are not included because their employee information is not available in the Pay System:
    • Canadian Security Intelligence Service
    • National Capital Commission
    • Canada Investment and Savings
    • Canadian Forces Non-Public Funds
    • Security Intelligence Review Committee (before 2010)
Population of the federal public service by age band
Age band Year
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Core public administration
<20 416 406 451 569 586 641 449 564 691 700 574
20-24 6,222 6,903 7,555 9,338 11,263 12,511 12,465 13,023 13,386 13,081 11,455
25-29 12,908 12,803 13,129 15,340 18,605 21,553 24,467 26,798 29,361 30,040 27,610
30-34 21,520 21,150 20,682 21,269 22,070 23,278 25,206 27,503 31,411 34,043 34,388
35-39 27,353 27,445 27,614 28,156 29,366 30,228 31,903 32,527 34,490 35,581 35,277
40-44 28,088 28,841 29,729 31,207 32,932 34,495 36,313 37,314 39,529 41,153 40,617
45-49 28,649 28,570 29,196 30,082 31,440 32,800 34,805 36,272 38,796 40,937 41,705
50-54 33,151 32,463 31,886 31,229 31,003 30,966 31,983 32,715 34,437 35,862 36,512
55-59 23,194 23,868 24,236 25,030 25,839 26,517 27,719 27,205 27,086 27,387 27,382
60-64 10,227 10,730 11,002 11,569 12,206 12,785 14,127 14,096 14,879 15,909 16,150
65+ 3,837 4,174 4,209 4,521 5,001 5,400 6,300 6,292 6,732 7,459 7,726
Unknown 0 1 2 2 4 2 2 0 0 0 0
Total 195,565 197,354 199,691 208,312 220,315 231,176 245,739 254,309 270,798 282,152 279,396
Separate agencies
<20 80 95 143 192 268 256 144 218 230 178 58
20-24 1,879 1,984 2,378 2,955 3,544 3,787 3,729 4,567 4,254 3,717 1,989
25-29 3,970 3,924 4,241 4,927 5,708 6,219 7,186 8,844 9,565 9,360 7,377
30-34 5,969 5,933 6,025 6,237 6,574 6,768 7,588 9,212 10,555 10,670 9,762
35-39 7,735 7,894 8,019 8,240 8,347 8,367 9,026 10,254 11,012 11,087 10,314
40-44 8,239 8,339 8,685 8,924 9,297 9,646 10,310 11,379 12,323 12,340 11,636
45-49 9,210 9,098 9,108 9,381 9,363 9,423 9,872 10,680 11,427 11,813 11,703
50-54 11,135 10,773 10,410 10,150 9,924 9,738 9,992 10,197 10,612 10,414 10,217
55-59 8,282 8,458 8,707 8,701 8,742 8,840 9,018 8,917 8,856 8,590 8,187
60-64 3,631 3,737 3,829 3,978 4,223 4,414 4,901 5,062 5,160 5,085 4,957
65+ 1,338 1,389 1,458 1,571 1,676 1,816 2,095 2,317 2,454 2,365 2,368
Unknown 1 1 2 3 2 0 1 1 1 1 1
Total 61,469 61,625 63,005 65,259 67,668 69,274 73,862 81,648 86,449 85,620 78,569
Federal public service
<20 496 501 594 761 854 897 593 782 921 878 632
20-24 8,101 8,887 9,933 12,293 14,807 16,298 16,194 17,590 17,640 16,798 13,444
25-29 16,878 16,727 17,370 20,267 24,313 27,772 31,653 35,642 38,926 39,400 34,987
30-34 27,489 27,083 26,707 27,506 28,644 30,046 32,794 36,715 41,966 44,713 44,150
35-39 35,088 35,339 35,633 36,396 37,713 38,595 40,929 42,781 45,502 46,668 45,591
40-44 36,327 37,180 38,414 40,131 42,229 44,141 46,623 48,693 51,852 53,493 52,253
45-49 37,859 37,668 38,304 39,463 40,803 42,223 44,677 46,952 50,223 52,750 53,408
50-54 44,286 43,236 42,296 41,379 40,927 40,704 41,975 42,912 45,049 46,276 46,729
55-59 31,476 32,326 32,943 33,731 34,581 35,357 36,737 36,122 35,942 35,977 35,569
60-64 13,858 14,467 14,831 15,547 16,429 17,199 19,028 19,158 20,039 20,994 21,107
65+ 5,175 5,563 5,667 6,092 6,677 7,216 8,395 8,609 9,186 9,824 10,094
Unknown 1 2 4 5 6 2 3 1 1 1 1
Total 257,034 258,979 262,696 273,571 287,983 300,450 319,601 335,957 357,247 367,772 357,965

Archived information

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Data file Description
Population of the federal public service by age band These data present population counts by age band for the federal public service (all departments and agencies governed by the Financial Administration Act (FAA) Schedules I, IV and V) from to .

Glossary of key terms

To assist you with your analysis of federal public service human resources data, we have compiled a glossary of key terms that are used in many of the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer’s (OCHRO) demographic snapshots and reports. This glossary has been developed to help provide a common language across OCHRO’s demographic snapshots and reports.

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2025-10-29