About this API
The Web Data Service (WDS) is the public API of Statistics Canada (Statistique Canada), Canada's federal statistical agency. It exposes the main database of statistical tables published on statcan.gc.ca (the successor to the former CANSIM database): the full catalogue of tables, their metadata, and the underlying data series addressed by product id (productId, 10 digits), dimension coordinates, and vectors. Coverage includes GDP, inflation (CPI), employment, international trade, population, and the census. REST endpoints run over HTTPS and return JSON with no key required; separate paths let you download whole tables as CSV and SDMX. The getChangedCubeList/{date} endpoint returns the list of tables updated on a given day — a convenient signal for refreshing data client-side.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an API key?
No. The Web Data Service is public and free — no registration and no API key.
What data does this API return?
Official Canadian statistics from the main Statistics Canada tables database (successor to CANSIM): the table catalogue, table metadata, and data series — GDP, inflation, employment, trade, demographics — addressed by product id, coordinates, and vectors. Responses are JSON; whole tables are also available as CSV and SDMX.
Can this API be called directly from a browser?
Yes — the API returns a CORS header allowing calls from any origin, so it works straight from front-end code (hence the live "Try it" button above).
Who runs this API?
Statistics Canada (Statistique Canada) — Canada's federal statistical agency. Full WDS documentation is available at statcan.gc.ca.