Population of the Federal Public Service
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About the data
When reading the table below, the following information applies:
- Source of information: Pay System as of 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)
| Year | Population of the Federal Public Service | Population of the Core Public Administration | Population of Separate Agencies | Canadian Population (Statistics Canada) Table 17-10-0009-01 (as of )table 1 note * |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 257,034 | 195,565 | 61,469 | 35,606,734 |
| 2016 | 258,979 | 197,354 | 61,625 | 35,970,407 |
| 2017 | 262,696 | 199,691 | 63,005 | 36,397,141 |
| 2018 | 273,571 | 208,312 | 65,259 | 36,903,671 |
| 2019 | 287,983 | 220,315 | 67,668 | 37,437,243 |
| 2020 | 300,450 | 231,176 | 69,274 | 38,006,941 |
| 2021 | 319,601 | 245,739 | 73,862 | 38,140,918 |
| 2022 | 335,957 | 254,309 | 81,648 | 38,693,009 |
| 2023 | 357,247 | 270,798 | 86,449 | 39,727,297 |
| 2024 | 367,772 | 282,152 | 85,620 | 40,990,297 |
| 2025 | 357,965 | 279,396 | 78,569 | 41,604,555 |
Table Notes
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Archived information
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| Data file | Description |
|---|---|
| Population of the federal public service | These data present population counts 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.