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Population of the federal public service by sex 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 sex and executive level
Sex Year
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Core public administration
Men 89,010 89,467 90,309 93,746 98,996 103,424 108,376 110,987 116,775 121,240 120,856
Executives
 2,694 2,692 2,683 2,729 2,844 2,941 3,093 3,260 3,399 3,374 3,381
EX-01
 1,375 1,352 1,342 1,353 1,368 1,430 1,465 1,593 1,675 1,627 1,597
EX-02
 662 674 678 670 721 765 852 857 908 908 945
EX-03
 490 490 489 518 561 547 571 618 623 644 647
EX-04
 120 122 117 129 131 127 134 126 129 127 125
EX-05
 47 54 57 59 63 72 71 66 64 68 67
Non-executives
 86,316 86,775 87,626 91,017 96,152 100,483 105,283 107,727 113,376 117,866 117,475
Women 106,555 107,876 109,272 114,478 121,200 127,606 137,216 143,189 153,881 160,774 158,492
Executives
 2,264 2,343 2,411 2,567 2,782 2,981 3,328 3,609 3,919 4,041 4,174
EX-01
 1,245 1,280 1,302 1,397 1,532 1,644 1,850 1,980 2,147 2,196 2,249
EX-02
 547 570 611 637 671 702 766 877 933 976 995
EX-03
 358 378 374 391 435 481 541 563 646 646 701
EX-04
 86 80 91 103 103 114 122 144 140 167 162
EX-05
 28 35 33 39 41 40 49 45 53 56 67
Non-executives
 104,291 105,533 106,861 111,911 118,418 124,625 133,888 139,580 149,962 156,733 154,318
Unknown 0 11 110 88 119 146 147 133 142 138 48
Executives
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 0
EX-01
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
EX-04
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0
Non-executives
 0 11 110 88 119 146 147 132 140 137 48
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
Men 26,679 26,884 27,501 28,501 29,740 30,572 32,420 35,794 37,491 37,385 34,516
Executives
 746 740 750 737 731 725 760 777 821 802 797
EX-01
 336 334 340 316 320 298 300 315 331 328 306
EX-02
 210 212 224 234 224 232 257 263 267 267 286
EX-03
 127 123 120 124 116 130 130 141 164 144 144
EX-04
 38 39 36 36 44 36 42 34 37 43 41
EX-05
 35 32 30 27 27 29 31 24 22 20 20
Non-executives
 25,933 26,144 26,751 27,764 29,009 29,847 31,660 35,017 36,670 36,583 33,719
Women 34,790 34,741 35,487 36,726 37,879 38,646 41,381 45,800 48,880 48,135 44,031
Executives
 636 639 636 645 712 728 789 859 928 937 988
EX-01
 316 318 319 323 358 370 384 412 439 441 466
EX-02
 171 175 176 181 204 209 240 255 286 295 303
EX-03
 101 105 103 107 98 97 109 128 130 127 143
EX-04
 35 28 27 25 33 32 35 40 42 44 47
EX-05
 13 13 11 9 19 20 21 24 31 30 29
Non-executives
 34,154 34,102 34,851 36,081 37,167 37,918 40,592 44,941 47,952 47,198 43,043
Unknown 0 0 17 32 49 56 61 54 78 100 22
Executives
 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0
EX-02
 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
EX-04
 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Non-executives
 0 0 17 32 48 55 59 54 78 100 22
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
Men 115,689 116,351 117,810 122,247 128,736 133,996 140,796 146,781 154,266 158,625 155,372
Executives
 3,440 3,432 3,433 3,466 3,575 3,666 3,853 4,037 4,220 4,176 4,178
EX-01
 1,711 1,686 1,682 1,669 1,688 1,728 1,765 1,908 2,006 1,955 1,903
EX-02
 872 886 902 904 945 997 1,109 1,120 1,175 1,175 1,231
EX-03
 617 613 609 642 677 677 701 759 787 788 791
EX-04
 158 161 153 165 175 163 176 160 166 170 166
EX-05
 82 86 87 86 90 101 102 90 86 88 87
Non-executives
 112,249 112,919 114,377 118,781 125,161 130,330 136,943 142,744 150,046 154,449 151,194
Women 141,345 142,617 144,759 151,204 159,079 166,252 178,597 188,989 202,761 208,909 202,523
Executives
 2,900 2,982 3,047 3,212 3,494 3,709 4,117 4,468 4,847 4,978 5,162
EX-01
 1,561 1,598 1,621 1,720 1,890 2,014 2,234 2,392 2,586 2,637 2,715
EX-02
 718 745 787 818 875 911 1,006 1,132 1,219 1,271 1,298
EX-03
 459 483 477 498 533 578 650 691 776 773 844
EX-04
 121 108 118 128 136 146 157 184 182 211 209
EX-05
 41 48 44 48 60 60 70 69 84 86 96
Non-executives
 138,445 139,635 141,712 147,992 155,585 162,543 174,480 184,521 197,914 203,931 197,361
Unknown 0 11 127 120 168 202 208 187 220 238 70
Executives
 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 1 2 1 0
EX-01
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
EX-02
 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
EX-04
 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0
Non-executives
 0 11 127 120 167 201 206 186 218 237 70
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

Archived information

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Data file Description
Population of the federal public service by sex and executive level These data present population counts by sex 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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