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Population of the federal public service by first official language and executive level

From: Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

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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. Separate agencies conduct their own negotiations or set their own classification levels for their employees.
  • 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
    • 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)
  • Data on executives in the federal public service include employees from the Executive group as well as executive equivalents within the separate agencies.
  • Executive equivalents in separate agencies were adjusted in 2016 and as a result, historical years have been adjusted according to this grouping and may not reflect previous figures provided in historical Demographic snapshot of Canada’s public service reports and Clerk of the Privy Council’s Annual Reports to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada.
Population of the federal public service by first official language and executive level
First official language Year
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Core public administration
English 150,073 150,106 146,753 138,559 134,842 135,552 137,471 137,046 142,781 151,264 158,611 169,327 176,332 188,921 197,455
Executives
 3,786 3,855 3,837 3,587 3,447 3,377 3,463 3,412 3,541 3,736 3,911 4,267 4,570 4,829 4,874
EX-01
 2,007 2,067 2,083 1,916 1,840 1,771 1,795 1,731 1,807 1,868 1,982 2,157 2,334 2,491 2,480
EX-02
 882 884 861 830 800 816 839 858 854 921 940 1,041 1,119 1,172 1,212
EX-03
 650 670 650 617 588 586 622 620 658 713 736 795 838 882 883
EX-04
 171 160 168 155 149 152 148 145 156 164 177 191 204 202 214
EX-05
 76 74 75 69 70 52 59 58 66 70 76 83 75 82 85
Non-executives
 146,287 146,251 142,916 134,972 131,395 132,175 134,008 133,634 139,240 147,528 154,700 165,060 171,762 184,092 192,581
French 65,495 65,992 64,264 60,562 59,409 59,106 59,115 61,197 63,643 67,607 70,669 74,329 76,289 81,056 83,965
Executives
 1,644 1,698 1,692 1,583 1,541 1,578 1,572 1,674 1,744 1,879 2,006 2,145 2,295 2,488 2,535
EX-01
 943 973 949 871 826 847 837 911 943 1,029 1,091 1,154 1,237 1,330 1,342
EX-02
 388 402 409 376 387 392 405 429 448 467 524 573 613 668 670
EX-03
 235 241 251 263 258 262 246 242 248 282 292 317 343 387 407
EX-04
 56 table 1 note * 58 52 51 54 54 61 75 68 64 65 67 68 79
EX-05
 22 table 1 note * 25 21 19 23 30 31 30 33 35 36 35 35 37
Non-executives
 63,851 64,294 62,572 58,979 57,868 57,528 57,543 59,523 61,899 65,728 68,663 72,184 73,994 78,568 81,430
Unknown 1,028 1,126 1,011 1,395 1,079 907 768 1,448 1,888 1,444 1,896 2,083 1,688 821 732
Executives
 11 12 9 9 7 3 0 8 11 11 5 9 5 3 7
EX-01
 9 10 7 7 3 2 0 2 0 3 1 4 2 2 1
EX-02
 1 1 1 2 3 1 0 2 5 4 3 4 2 1 2
EX-03
 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0
EX-04
 1 table 1 note * 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 2
EX-05
 0 table 1 note * 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 2
Non-executives
 1,017 1,114 1,002 1,386 1,072 904 768 1,440 1,877 1,433 1,891 2,074 1,683 818 725
Total 216,596 217,224 212,028 200,516 195,330 195,565 197,354 199,691 208,312 220,315 231,176 245,739 254,309 270,798 282,152
Separate agencies
English 48,116 47,296 48,408 45,851 45,923 46,116 46,434 47,543 49,310 51,161 52,129 55,776 61,701 65,046 63,961
Executives
 851 904 885 891 912 912 931 984 971 1,010 1,029 1,105 1,154 1,224 1,220
EX-01
 426 431 423 418 439 423 431 475 455 470 463 476 498 524 539
EX-02
 204 239 230 227 247 256 272 281 295 311 318 365 370 393 393
EX-03
 148 163 161 171 160 158 160 159 160 145 163 175 204 216 199
EX-04
 32 35 38 38 37 42 38 38 32 49 50 54 56 60 62
EX-05
 41 36 33 37 29 33 30 31 29 35 35 35 26 31 27
Non-executives
 47,265 46,392 47,523 44,960 45,011 45,204 45,503 46,559 48,339 50,151 51,100 54,671 60,547 63,822 62,741
French 15,586 15,324 15,255 14,423 14,217 14,051 14,302 14,929 15,189 15,398 15,772 16,397 17,820 18,919 18,787
Executives
 349 357 357 351 355 357 356 397 406 431 420 437 464 500 496
EX-01
 163 173 175 173 173 168 166 183 183 208 204 208 225 238 223
EX-02
 96 97 92 93 98 98 98 117 118 117 122 127 139 149 160
EX-03
 64 63 65 59 58 60 58 62 69 67 62 61 63 75 69
EX-04
 20 table 1 note * 18 18 17 20 23 25 29 28 18 24 16 18 23
EX-05
 6 table 1 note * 7 8 9 11 11 10 7 11 14 17 21 20 21
Non-executives
 15,237 14,967 14,898 14,072 13,862 13,694 13,946 14,532 14,783 14,967 15,352 15,960 17,356 18,419 18,291
Unknown 2,682 2,508 2,401 2,027 1,668 1,302 889 533 760 1,109 1,373 1,689 2,127 2,484 2,872
Executives
 130 123 126 122 115 113 92 5 5 3 5 9 18 25 23
EX-01
 60 57 58 63 61 61 55 1 1 0 1 0 4 8 7
EX-02
 37 31 34 30 27 27 17 2 2 1 2 6 9 11 9
EX-03
 22 23 21 16 14 10 10 2 2 2 2 3 2 3 3
EX-04
 4 table 1 note * 9 9 8 11 6 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2
EX-05
 7 table 1 note * 4 4 5 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 2
Non-executives
 2,552 2,385 2,275 1,905 1,553 1,189 797 528 755 1,106 1,368 1,680 2,109 2,459 2,849
Total 66,384 65,128 66,064 62,301 61,808 61,469 61,625 63,005 65,259 67,668 69,274 73,862 81,648 86,449 85,620
Federal public service
English 198,189 197,402 195,161 184,410 180,765 181,668 183,905 184,589 192,091 202,425 210,740 225,103 238,033 253,967 261,416
Executives
 4,637 4,759 4,722 4,478 4,359 4,289 4,394 4,396 4,512 4,746 4,940 5,372 5,724 6,053 6,094
EX-01
 2,433 2,498 2,506 2,334 2,279 2,194 2,226 2,206 2,262 2,338 2,445 2,633 2,832 3,015 3,019
EX-02
 1,086 1,123 1,091 1,057 1,047 1,072 1,111 1,139 1,149 1,232 1,258 1,406 1,489 1,565 1,605
EX-03
 798 833 811 788 748 744 782 779 818 858 899 970 1,042 1,098 1,082
EX-04
 203 195 206 193 186 194 186 183 188 213 227 245 260 262 276
EX-05
 117 110 108 106 99 85 89 89 95 105 111 118 101 113 112
Non-executives
 193,552 192,643 190,439 179,932 176,406 177,379 179,511 180,193 187,579 197,679 205,800 219,731 232,309 247,914 255,322
French 81,081 81,316 79,519 74,985 73,626 73,157 73,417 76,126 78,832 83,005 86,441 90,726 94,109 99,975 102,752
Executives
 1,993 2,055 2,049 1,934 1,896 1,935 1,928 2,071 2,150 2,310 2,426 2,582 2,759 2,988 3,031
EX-01
 1,106 1,146 1,124 1,044 999 1,015 1,003 1,094 1,126 1,237 1,295 1,362 1,462 1,568 1,565
EX-02
 484 499 501 469 485 490 503 546 566 584 646 700 752 817 830
EX-03
 299 304 316 322 316 322 304 304 317 349 354 378 406 462 476
EX-04
 76 79 76 70 68 74 77 86 104 96 82 89 83 86 102
EX-05
 28 27 32 29 28 34 41 41 37 44 49 53 56 55 58
Non-executives
 79,088 79,261 77,470 73,051 71,730 71,222 71,489 74,055 76,682 80,695 84,015 88,144 91,350 96,987 99,721
Unknown 3,710 3,634 3,412 3,422 2,747 2,209 1,657 1,981 2,648 2,553 3,269 3,772 3,815 3,305 3,604
Executives
 141 135 135 131 122 116 92 13 16 14 10 18 23 28 30
EX-01
 69 67 65 70 64 63 55 3 1 3 2 4 6 10 8
EX-02
 38 32 35 32 30 28 17 4 7 5 5 10 11 12 11
EX-03
 22 23 21 16 15 10 10 3 5 3 2 3 2 3 3
EX-04
 5 6 10 9 8 11 6 2 1 2 0 0 2 1 4
EX-05
 7 7 4 4 5 4 4 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 4
Non-executives
 3,569 3,499 3,277 3,291 2,625 2,093 1,565 1,968 2,632 2,539 3,259 3,754 3,792 3,277 3,574
Federal public service total 282,980 282,352 278,092 262,817 257,138 257,034 258,979 262,696 273,571 287,983 300,450 319,601 335,957 357,247 367,772

Table 1 Notes

Table 1 Note 1

Information for small numbers has been supressed (counts of 1 to 5). Additionally, to avoid residual disclosure, other data points, may also be supressed.

Return to table 1 note *

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Data file Description
Population of the federal public service by first official language and executive level These data present population counts by first official language and executive level for the federal public service (all departments and agencies governed by the Financial Administration Act (FAA) Schedules I, IV and V) from March 31, 2010 to March 31, 2024.

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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