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

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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
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Core public administration
English 135,552 137,471 137,046 142,781 151,264 158,611 169,327 176,332 188,921 197,455 195,070
Executives
 3,377 3,463 3,412 3,541 3,736 3,911 4,267 4,570 4,829 4,874 4,939
EX-01
 1,771 1,795 1,731 1,807 1,868 1,982 2,157 2,334 2,491 2,480 2,458
EX-02
 816 839 858 854 921 940 1,041 1,119 1,172 1,212 1,239
EX-03
 586 622 620 658 713 736 795 838 882 883 932
EX-04
 152 148 145 156 164 177 191 204 202 214 214
EX-05
 52 59 58 66 70 76 83 75 82 85 96
Non-executives
 132,175 134,008 133,634 139,240 147,528 154,700 165,060 171,762 184,092 192,581 190,131
French 59,106 59,115 61,197 63,643 67,607 70,669 74,329 76,289 81,056 83,965 83,545
Executives
 1,578 1,572 1,674 1,744 1,879 2,006 2,145 2,295 2,488 2,535 2,616
EX-01
 847 837 911 943 1,029 1,091 1,154 1,237 1,330 1,342 1,388
EX-02
 392 405 429 448 467 524 573 613 668 670 701
EX-03
 262 246 242 248 282 292 317 343 387 407 416
EX-04
 54 54 61 75 68 64 65 67 68 79 73
EX-05
 23 30 31 30 33 35 36 35 35 37 38
Non-executives
 57,528 57,543 59,523 61,899 65,728 68,663 72,184 73,994 78,568 81,430 80,929
Unknown 907 768 1,448 1,888 1,444 1,896 2,083 1,688 821 732 781
Executives
 3 0 8 11 11 5 9 5 3 7 0
EX-01
 2 0 2 0 3 1 4 2 2 1 0
EX-02
 1 0 2 5 4 3 4 2 1 2 0
EX-03
 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
EX-04
 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 0
EX-05
 0 0 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 2 0
Non-executives
 904 768 1,440 1,877 1,433 1,891 2,074 1,683 818 725 781
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
English 46,116 46,434 47,543 49,310 51,161 52,129 55,776 61,701 65,046 63,961 57,821
Executives
 912 931 984 971 1,010 1,029 1,105 1,154 1,224 1,220 1,241
EX-01
 423 431 475 455 470 463 476 498 524 539 536
EX-02
 256 272 281 295 311 318 365 370 393 393 406
EX-03
 158 160 159 160 145 163 175 204 216 199 207
EX-04
 42 38 38 32 49 50 54 56 60 62 64
EX-05
 33 30 31 29 35 35 35 26 31 27 28
Non-executives
 45,204 45,503 46,559 48,339 50,151 51,100 54,671 60,547 63,822 62,741 56,580
French 14,051 14,302 14,929 15,189 15,398 15,772 16,397 17,820 18,919 18,787 17,386
Executives
 357 356 397 406 431 420 437 464 500 496 519
EX-01
 168 166 183 183 208 204 208 225 238 223 229
EX-02
 98 98 117 118 117 122 127 139 149 160 172
EX-03
 60 58 62 69 67 62 61 63 75 69 76
EX-04
 20 23 25 29 28 18 24 16 18 23 23
EX-05
 11 11 10 7 11 14 17 21 20 21 19
Non-executives
 13,694 13,946 14,532 14,783 14,967 15,352 15,960 17,356 18,419 18,291 16,867
Unknown 1,302 889 533 760 1,109 1,373 1,689 2,127 2,484 2,872 3,362
Executives
 113 92 5 5 3 5 9 18 25 23 25
EX-01
 61 55 1 1 0 1 0 4 8 7 7
EX-02
 27 17 2 2 1 2 6 9 11 9 11
EX-03
 10 10 2 2 2 2 3 2 3 3 4
EX-04
 11 6 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 1
EX-05
 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 2
Non-executives
 1,189 797 528 755 1,106 1,368 1,680 2,109 2,459 2,849 3,337
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
English 181,668 183,905 184,589 192,091 202,425 210,740 225,103 238,033 253,967 261,416 252,891
Executives
 4,289 4,394 4,396 4,512 4,746 4,940 5,372 5,724 6,053 6,094 6,180
EX-01
 2,194 2,226 2,206 2,262 2,338 2,445 2,633 2,832 3,015 3,019 2,994
EX-02
 1,072 1,111 1,139 1,149 1,232 1,258 1,406 1,489 1,565 1,605 1,645
EX-03
 744 782 779 818 858 899 970 1,042 1,098 1,082 1,139
EX-04
 194 186 183 188 213 227 245 260 262 276 278
EX-05
 85 89 89 95 105 111 118 101 113 112 124
Non-executives
 177,379 179,511 180,193 187,579 197,679 205,800 219,731 232,309 247,914 255,322 246,711
French 73,157 73,417 76,126 78,832 83,005 86,441 90,726 94,109 99,975 102,752 100,931
Executives
 1,935 1,928 2,071 2,150 2,310 2,426 2,582 2,759 2,988 3,031 3,135
EX-01
 1,015 1,003 1,094 1,126 1,237 1,295 1,362 1,462 1,568 1,565 1,617
EX-02
 490 503 546 566 584 646 700 752 817 830 873
EX-03
 322 304 304 317 349 354 378 406 462 476 492
EX-04
 74 77 86 104 96 82 89 83 86 102 96
EX-05
 34 41 41 37 44 49 53 56 55 58 57
Non-executives
 71,222 71,489 74,055 76,682 80,695 84,015 88,144 91,350 96,987 99,721 97,796
Unknown 2,209 1,657 1,981 2,648 2,553 3,269 3,772 3,815 3,305 3,604 4,143
Executives
 116 92 13 16 14 10 18 23 28 30 25
EX-01
 63 55 3 1 3 2 4 6 10 8 7
EX-02
 28 17 4 7 5 5 10 11 12 11 11
EX-03
 10 10 3 5 3 2 3 2 3 3 4
EX-04
 11 6 2 1 2 0 0 2 1 4 1
EX-05
 4 4 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 4 2
Non-executives
 2,093 1,565 1,968 2,632 2,539 3,259 3,754 3,792 3,277 3,574 4,118
Federal public service total 257,034 258,979 262,696 273,571 287,983 300,450 319,601 335,957 357,247 367,772 357,965

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 *

Archived information

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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  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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2025-06-27