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Inspurious

@inspurious.bsky.social
25 followers 105 following 63 posts

Bite-sized data stories across Canada. inspurious.com

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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Finding it hard to parse this claim, as there are quite a few moving parts. e.g. yes newcomers disproportionately settled in cities, but Toronto's share of these newcomers has been decreasing over time (at least in terms of permanent immigrants). How does that play in?
Stacked area chart of the share of Canada's new permanent immigrants settling in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, 2002 to 2025, with everyone else stacked on top. Their combined share fell from 74% to 45%, apart from a brief rebound to about 59% in 2021. Toronto's share alone fell from 48% to 26%.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
88% of new vehicles sold in Canada in 2025 were SUVs, trucks or vans. In 1962, it was 14%.
Line chart of SUVs, trucks and vans as a share of new vehicles sold in Canada, 1946 to 2025, falling from 35% to a low near 14% in 1962, then climbing to 88% in 2025.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kids pull women's employment down and men's up. In 2025, 74% of Canadian women aged 25-54 with a child under 4 were employed, vs 84% of women with no kids at home. For men it's the reverse: 93% vs about 87%. #Canada #LabourForce
Line chart, 1976-2025, of employment rates for men and women aged 25-54 with a child under 4 versus no child under 18; in 2025 men with a young child are at 93%, women with a young child at 74%.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
(more supporting data) Per StatCan, men's suicide rate is higher than women's at every age, but it peaks well past youth: 21.5 per 100K at ages 55–64, vs 5.6 for women that age. Chart: inspurious.com/story/e210b0cf-af2f-44a3-a737-9d0cbbb1f648
Dot chart of Canada's 2024 suicide rate per 100,000 by age and sex. Men's rate is higher at every age and peaks at 21.5 at ages 55–64; women's stays between about 3.5 and 6.7. Source: Statistics Canada.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Some supporting data: Alberta has 95% more physicians per resident than in 1971, but 7% fewer physicians per senior aged 65+.
Line chart titled "Two ways of counting Alberta's doctor supply," 1971 to 2024. Physicians per 1K seniors (blue) rise from 17.0 to a peak near 20.8 in 2015, then fall to 15.8 in 2024. Physicians per 1K people (orange) rise steadily from 1.23 to 2.39. Sources: CIHI and Statistics Canada.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Alberta's migrants used to skew male: in 2007 it gained 22.2k men and 11.6k women from other provinces. Since 2022: 60.3k men, 61.3k women. Women led in 3 of 4 boom years, a first since 1972. inspurious.com/story/5e0a54... #Alberta #migration
Line chart of net interprovincial migration to Alberta by sex, 1972 to 2025; men's line usually sits above women's, but the two nearly overlap in the 2022-2025 boom, peaking near 25k in 2024.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Some data, just for added context: per StatsCan, Winnipeg's average apartment rents have risen about 5% a year on a 3-year rolling average through 2025: 5.3% for one-bedrooms, 5.1% for two-bedrooms (not inflation-adjusted). inspurious.com/story/fd8fdfe9-717b-48f2-9fdf-ea091fde986a
Line chart of year-over-year change in Winnipeg apartment rents, 3-year rolling average, 1993 to 2025, by unit size. In 2025 one-bedroom rents are up 5.3%, two-bedrooms 5.1%, bachelor units 5.0% and three-bedrooms 3.2%.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Per StatsCan, net migration to Alberta from other provinces hit a record 48.4k people in fiscal 2024 (series starts in 1972). Chart shows each boom year, by sex: inspurious.com/story/5e0a54e2-6472-4a25-b699-5d7d4c5f05dd
Line chart of net interprovincial migration to Alberta by sex, fiscal 1972 to 2025. Booms in the late 1970s, late 1990s, 2000s, early 2010s and 2022 onward; the 2024 peak is about 25k men and 24k women.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
More data: per StatCan, daily arrivals of Canadians returning from the US by air at Toronto Pearson and Billy Bishop in Jan–Jul 2026 were 30% below the same months of 2024. Full chart: inspurious.com/story/3705bd91-61c1-48b1-be16-8a3f988471b5
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Among Canadians aged 15–19, girls were treated for mood or anxiety disorders 2.2× as often as boys in 2023–24: 14.8% vs 6.7%. The gap varies sharply by age. inspurious.com/story/72e742... #Canada #Health
A chart compares the share of Canadian women and girls versus men and boys treated for a mood or anxiety disorder by age in 2023–24; the largest gap is ages 15–19, at 14.8% versus 6.7%.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
In the 12 months to June 2026, Canada ran an $86b surplus with the United States and a $96b deficit with the rest of the world. The two nearly cancel, leaving an overall goods deficit of $10b. inspurious.com/story/0be0d9... #trade #Canada
Line chart of Canada's 12-month rolling goods trade balance since 1997, showing a consistent surplus with the United States (now $86b) and a steadily widening deficit with the rest of the world (now -$96b).
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Breakdown of where these tourists are coming from: inspurious.com/story/904b65...
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Halifax Stanfield tourist arrivals have been climbing in recent years and are now well above what they were before COVID-19
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
In every province, women report more unmet health care needs than men. Nova Scotia has the widest gap: 14.4% of women, 10.2% of men in 2024. Alberta's is the narrowest. inspurious.com/story/9c7791... #healthcare
Dumbbell chart of the share of men and women reporting unmet health care needs in each province in 2024, with women higher in all ten and Nova Scotia widest at 14.4% for women versus 10.2% for men.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Suicide is often framed as a young person's tragedy. But in Canada the male rate peaked at ages 55–64 in 2024: 21.5 per 100k. Men's rate was higher than women's at every age. inspurious.com/story/e210b0... 9-8-8 is Canada's crisis line, 24/7. #Canada
Chart of Canada's 2024 suicide rate per 100,000 people by age group and sex, showing the male rate peaking at 21.5 at ages 55–64 against 5.6 for women the same age, with men above women in every age band.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Halifax is both younger and older than it was in 2001. Its age distribution is now bimodal, with peaks in the late 20s and around 60. Back in 2001 there was just one clear peak, around age 40. inspurious.com/story/2e3173... #Halifax #NovaScotia
Line chart of the share of Halifax's population at each age, comparing 2001 (dashed grey) with 2025 (blue); the 2001 line has a single peak near age 40, while the 2025 line peaks in the late 20s and again around age 60.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Windsor's unemployment rate swings further from the national average than almost any other Canadian city. July 2009: 15.7%, deep in the auto collapse. Oct 2016: 4.8%. By 2024: back up to 9.1% vs. Canada's 6.7%. inspurious.com/story/fa174d... #Windsor #employment
Line chart of Windsor's monthly unemployment rate vs. Canada and the CMA median from 2006-2024, showing Windsor swinging from a 2009 peak of 15.7% down to a 2016 low of 4.8% and back up to 9.1% by 2024.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Which grocery items have risen in price the most since 2017? A: beef top sirloin (up 81%), infant formula (78%), and coffee (75%) lead the pack of 106 tracked grocery items. Across all items, prices rose 37%. inspurious.com/story/4ea4ec... #groceries #inflation
Bar chart ranking 106 Canadian grocery items by price change from 2017 to 2025, with beef top sirloin up 81%, the largest increase, against a 37% average.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Canada's international student population peaked in Jan 2024, the quarter Ottawa capped new study permits. By Jan 2026 it was down 37%. In Ontario, it was roughly cut in half. inspurious.com/story/4ffa7c... #immigration #Canada
Line chart of study permit holders in Canada, Ontario, and British Columbia from July 2021 to January 2026, showing all three peaking in January 2024 then declining — Canada down 37%, Ontario down 50%.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
A complementary measure tells a similar story: StatCan's Crime Severity Index, which weights crimes by seriousness rather than just counting them, is down 27% nationally since 2000. Full chart: inspurious.com/story/2a3d0809-519d-45cc-b933-50be8506a22c
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Heart disease deaths in BC have fallen dramatically since 2000, from 246 to 123 per 100,000 (age-standardized). Cancer, stroke, flu/pneumonia, and chronic lung disease deaths fell too, but less steeply. inspurious.com/story/2e0579... #BritishColumbia #health
Line chart showing BC's five fastest-declining causes of death from 2000-2024: heart disease fell from 246 to 123 deaths per 100,000, cancer from 253 to 189, stroke from 80 to 36, chronic lung disease from 44 to 28, and flu/pneumonia from 44 to 14.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
In the 2025 federal elections, 55% of Alberta's 18-24 year olds voted vs 77% of 65-74 year olds. This gap has held in every federal election since 2004. Same pattern nationwide, not just Alberta: inspurious.com/story/97960c... #AlbertaVotes #Elections
Bar chart of 2025 Canadian federal election turnout by age group, ranging from 55% for ages 18-24 up to 77% for ages 65-74, with 67% turnout overall.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Quebec has lost residents to the rest of Canada almost every quarter since 1961. A single quarter in the late 1970s saw a net loss of over 20,000 people. Since late 2022 alone: -21,095. inspurious.com/story/0428c3... #Quebec #Migration
Bar chart of Quebec's quarterly net interprovincial migration from 1961 to 2025, almost entirely negative, with the deepest loss exceeding 20,000 people in a single quarter in the late 1970s.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Saskatoon has grown 63% since 2001, nearly double Canada's 34% growth. In 2025 it grew 2.4% vs 0.9% for Canada. inspurious.com/story/2dbcd0... #Saskatoon #Canada
Line chart of annual population growth 2002–2025 for Saskatoon, the median Canadian city, and Canada — Saskatoon spikes to 5% in 2023 versus about 1% for the others, and never dips below zero.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Outside Quebec, French immersion enrolment has grown 82% since 1997–98, while core French enrolment fell 20% over the same span. Immersion now makes up 27% of French-as-second-language students, up from 14%. inspurious.com/story/e17c54... #education #Canada
Line chart showing student enrolment outside Quebec from 1998–2024: core French fell from 1.63m to 1.30m, while French immersion rose from 0.26m to 0.48m.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
In 1987, ~13,000 people fished for a living in Newfoundland & Labrador (7% of the workforce). After the 1992 cod moratorium, it collapsed. By 2025: 3,100 jobs, just 1.3% of the workforce. inspurious.com/story/124590... #Newfoundland #fishing
Line chart of fishing, hunting and trapping employment in Atlantic provinces, 1987–2025, showing Newfoundland & Labrador falling from ~13,000 to 3,100 while Nova Scotia partly recovers.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
oops wrong chart. this one:
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Stretched back to 2019, tomatoes have actually climbed less than the typical item in StatCan's grocery basket, which rose 28%. Caveat: these are a 12-month rolling average that lags a couple months, so June isn't captured yet.
Line chart of the monthly retail price of tomatoes in Canada (12-month rolling average), rising from about $4.12/kg in 2019 to about $5.12/kg by 2026, source Statistics Canada.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The national number also hides big regional gaps: measured since 2019, tomato prices are up around 32% in PEI but only about 7% in Quebec, per StatCan's food basket. Though these figures are a couple months old, so June's monthly spike isn't captured here yet.
Line chart of the monthly retail price of tomatoes in Canada (12-month rolling average), rising from about $4.12/kg in 2019 to about $5.12/kg by 2026, source Statistics Canada.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Zooming out from that June figure: over the longer run, StatCan's food basket has tomatoes rising slower than the average tracked grocery item (+28% since 2019). Caveat: this is from a 12-month rolling average and runs a couple months behind, so June's jump isn't in it yet.
Line chart of the monthly retail price of tomatoes in Canada (12-month rolling average), rising from about $4.12/kg in 2019 to about $5.12/kg by 2026, source Statistics Canada.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Only 42% of hip/knee replacements in Quebec happened within the 6-month benchmark in 2024–25. PEI: 36%. Ontario: 80%. Huge provincial gap in surgery wait times. inspurious.com/story/397f2e... #healthcare #Canada
Bar chart showing the share of hip and knee replacement surgeries completed within six months by province, 2024–2025, ranging from 36% in Newfoundland and Labrador/PEI to 80% in Ontario, with the Canada-wide figure at 64%.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
fair – I was too quick to jump on the general principle of scaling y-axis to 0, rather than thinking about the specific case at hand here
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
e.g. a baseline of 0 when showing labour force participation would squash very real and meaningful changes, making them look like nothing.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
imo neither is ideal. The best version should show a range that reasonably captures meaningful variation in the data. This might be +/- 2 standard deviations, maybe the range of values for all cities, or whatever is a meaningful range. Always setting to 0 can make real changes look like nothing.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Between 1999 and 2020, road deaths for people inside vehicles in Canada fell ~50%. By contrast, deaths for "vulnerable road users" (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists) fell only ~10%. Result: vulnerable road users went from 22% of all road deaths in 1999 to 34% by 2020. #RoadSafety #Canada
Line chart showing annual road deaths in Canada from 1999-2020: vehicle occupant deaths falling steeply from ~2,000 to ~1,000, while vulnerable road user deaths (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists) stay roughly flat around 500-600.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Important context on violent and non-violent crime trends since 2000 Data on all provinces: inspurious.com/story/227811...
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Children now make up just 15% of Canada's population, down from 18.9% in 2001. Every one of the country's 41 metro areas experienced a decline over those 24 years, from a 0.8-point dip in Quebec City to a 7-point drop in Barrie, ON. #Canada #demographics
Line chart showing the share of the population aged 0-14 falling from 18.9% to 15.0% nationally between 2001 and 2025, with faint lines for all 41 Canadian metro areas and bold lines for the Canada and CMA-median trends, all sloping downward.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Canada's fertility rate just hit a record low: 1.25 children per woman in 2024, down 27% from 1.72 in 1991. Every province is now well below the 2.1 replacement level. inspurious.com/story/ad014b... #Canada #fertility
Line chart showing Canada's total fertility rate declining from 1.72 in 1991 to a record-low 1.25 children per woman in 2024, with all provinces tracking below the 2.1 replacement level.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Zero-emission vehicles hit 18.3% of new car registrations in Canada in late 2024, up from just 0.8% in 2017. Then Quebec paused its EV rebate and the share fell to 11.2%. inspurious.com/story/dc763f... #EVs #Canada
Line chart showing zero-emission vehicles as a share of Canada's new vehicle registrations rising from 0.8% in Q1 2017 to a peak of 18.3% in Q4 2024, then falling to 11.2% by Q4 2025.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Alberta health worker wages rose just 6.6% from 2001 to 2026 after adjusting for inflation, versus a 21.2% rise for Alberta workers overall. inspurious.com/story/80aa88... #Alberta #healthcare
Line chart of median hourly wages for Alberta health workers, 2001–2026, showing the unadjusted wage climbing to $35.91 while the inflation-adjusted wage (in constant January 2001 dollars) rises only to $19.45, up from $18.24 in 2001.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Cancer causes 38.8% of deaths among Canadians aged 65–74. By 85+, that share falls to 15.8% as other conditions take over. inspurious.com/story/04b9ba... #cancer #health
Horizontal bar chart showing the percent of deaths caused by cancer by age group in Canada in 2024, peaking at 38.8% for ages 65–74 and falling to 15.8% for ages 85+.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Infant formula is up 67% in Canada since 2019, making it the 2nd largest price increase across over 100 products tracked by Statistics Canada. A 900g tin now averages $49.77, up from $28.39. inspurious.com/story/6d0d66... #inflation #groceries
Line chart of the monthly retail price of a 900g tin of infant formula in Canada, rising from $28.39 in 2019 to $49.77 in 2026.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Victoria has the fewest children of any major Canadian city — just 11.7% of residents are under 15, vs. a national average of 15.0%. inspurious.com/story/121a72... #Victoria #demographics
Line chart showing Victoria's share of population aged 0–14 falling from ~15% in 2001 to 11.7% in 2025, well below the Canada average and CMA median lines.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
17.6% of Saskatoon's population is under 15 years old, which is the highest share of any Canadian city. That's 2.5 points above the national average, and it's held that top spot since 2001. inspurious.com/story/711de6... #Saskatoon #demographics
Line chart showing Saskatoon's share of population aged 0–14 from 2001 to 2025, sitting above the Canada average and CMA median throughout, ending at 17.6% in 2025.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Ontario health worker wages beat inflation since 2001, but just barely. After adjusting for inflation, gains were only 11% over 25 years (smaller than the average wage growth across all occupations). inspurious.com/story/d21a4c... #Ontario #healthcare
Line chart showing Ontario health worker median hourly wages from 2001 to 2026, unadjusted ($19.26 → $37.17) vs. inflation-adjusted ($19.49 → $21.63), a real gain of 11%.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
To be middle class in Calgary, you need $38k–$103k according to the OECD's benchmark of 75% to 200% of the local median income. How does your city compare? inspurious.com/story/0c255a... #Calgary #income
Horizontal bar chart showing the 25th–75th percentile income range for 40 Canadian cities; Calgary is highlighted in orange at $22k–$91k.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Victoria's rental vacancy rate is 2.5% in 2025 — below the 3% balanced market threshold, but the highest in years. Victoria and Vancouver have both run tighter than the national average for most of the past 25 years. inspurious.com/story/39da637b-a845-409e-b632-c560f3b1e510 #Victoria #housing
Line chart showing Victoria's apartment vacancy rate (3-year rolling average) since 2000, at 2.5% in 2025 — below the 3% balanced market line, alongside Vancouver (2.1%) and the all-CMAs average (2.4%).
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Private school enrolment in Ontario has grown — but public schools still dominate at 92%. Private is up from 5.1% in 2006 to 7.4% today. Homeschooling peaked at 1.1% during COVID, now sits at 0.6%. inspurious.com/story/1ddc2d... #Ontario #education #Canada
Line chart showing Ontario school enrolment share from 2006–2023: public schools fell from 94.7% to 92%, private rose from 5.1% to 7.4%, homeschooling grew from 0.2% to 0.6%.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
BC's fertility rate fell to 1.00 children per woman in 2023 — the lowest ever recorded by any Canadian province. It ticked up to 1.02 in 2024, still well below Canada's 1.25. inspurious.com/story/8ec8b4... #BritishColumbia #Canada
Line chart of total fertility rates for all provinces, 1991–2024, highlighting British Columbia falling to 1.02 children per woman in 2024 — the lowest in Canada — versus 1.25 nationally.
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Inspurious @inspurious.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Young women and girls vape more than their male peers. But after 25, the pattern reverses. inspurious.com/story/224749... #Canada #DataViz #PublicHealth #Vaping #Nicotine #YouthHealth
Share who vaped in the past month, Canada
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