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Recent Statistics Canada releases on the environment
Last updated 2023.04.27
- Statistics Canada's environment statistics portal
Statistic Canada's one-stop shop to find data, tools, and reports from the government on the latest information on environment statistics.
- Canada's Greenhouse Gas Emissions
As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Canada is obligated to prepare and submit an annual national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory covering anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks. Environment Canada is responsible for preparing Canada’s official national inventory with input from numerous experts and scientists across Canada. The National Inventory Report (NIR) contains Canada’s annual greenhouse gas emission estimates dating back to 1990.
- CANUE (Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium)
CANUE is a data repository containing data that addresses environmental factors that are linked to a range of health outcomes. Before you can access data, you will be asked to download, sign and return a data sharing agreement. Once it is completed, your project will be activated and you will be notified.
- ClimateData.ca (Environment and Climate Change Canada)
This website provides access to high-resolution climate data from Environment and Climate Change Canada and other sources. On this data portal you can access, visualize, analyze and download temperature and precipitation climate data for Canada.
- Climate Data Portals (Environment and Climate Change Canada)
This website provide access to the climate data from Environment and Climate Change Canada. Here you can find climate projections, climate normals, monthly climate summaries, daily climate data and records, hourly climate data, and hydrometric data, and much more. You can use the climate data viewer to view mapped climate data from Canada. The climate data extraction tool allows the user to download subsets of climate data.
- Earthquakes Canada
Data on Canadian and international seismic events.
- Environmental Indicators
Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators (CESI) measure the progress of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy, report to Canadians on the state of the environment, and describe Canada's progress on key environmental sustainability issues. The indicators, built on rigorous methodology, are added and updated as new, high quality data become available.
- EnviroStats
"The articles published in EnviroStats use statistics to illustrate topical environmental issues. The publication is intended for a general readership rather than an expert audience."
- Great Lakes Water Levels and Related Data
Information on Great Lakes water levels is available from several agencies in the United States and Canada. This Web page contains links to a number of official Web sites containing Great Lakes water level and related data. The greenhouse gas inventory statistics are via th Open Data Canada.
- Greenhouse Gas Inventory
Canada's official national greenhouse gas inventory is prepared and submitted annually to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). Use Canada's Official Greenhous Gas Inventory website to access reports, aggregated data and statistics. Use the Greenhouse gas reporting program webpage to access the data from facilities across Canada.
- Households and the Environment Survey: data tables
The Households and the Environment Survey (HES) measures the environmental practices and behaviours of Canadian households that relate to the condition of our air, water and soils. The survey was also designed to collect data to develop and improve three key environmental indicators: air quality, water quality and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Human Activity and the Environment
The Human Activity and the Environment (HAE) publications bring together a collection of environmental statistics from many sources, and paint a statistical portrait of Canada's environment. Special emphasis is given to the relationship of human activity to air, water, soil, plants and animals. Each issue is a feature article on an environmental topic of concern to Canadians.
- National Pollutant Release Inventory ( Environment Canada)
The National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) is Canada's legislated, publicly accessible inventory of pollutant releases (to air, water and land), disposals and transfers for recycling. It includes tools and resources for accessing, analyzing and interpreting National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) data on pollutant releases and transfers in Canada.
- Statistics Canada tables related to the environment
Time-series data on: air and climate; environmental protection; environmental quality; natural resources; pollution and waste.
- Sustainable Development Goals Data Hub (Statistics Canada)
Interactive data hub disseminating the Canadian Sustainable Development Goals Indicator Framework data and report on progress towards the ambitions and targets
- This website provide access to the climate data from Environment and Climate Change Canada and other sources. On this data portal you can access, visualize, analyze and download climate data for Canada.
- Water Survey of Canada: data
Real-time and historical data hydrometric data collected at over 1600 stations across Canada. These data include: daily and monthly mean flow, water level and sediment concentration for over 2500 active and 5500 discontinued hydrometric monitoring station across Canada.
Last updated 2023.04.27
- Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2020
Built around World Development Indicators 2020. For each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, selected indicators have been identified and visualized to analyze trends and challenges, and to stimulate discussion on measurement issues. Browsable online or as a PDF document.
- Climate Change Indicators in the United States
EPA partners with more than 40 data contributors from various government agencies, academic institutions, and other organizations to compile a key set of indicators related to the causes and effects of climate change. The indicators are published in EPA's report Climate Change Indicators in the United States, along with various tables of relevant indicators.
- Climate Watch Data Explorer
Climate Watch offers open data, visualizations and analysis to help policymakers, researchers and other stakeholders gather insights on countries' climate progress.
- Data from Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
Downloadable data on
- Agriculture
- Biodiversity & Ecosystems
- Climate Change
- Economic Activity
- Environmental Assessment & Modeling
- Environmental Health
- Environmental Treaties
- Indicators
- Land Use (LU)/ Land Cover (LC) and LU/LC Change
- Natural Hazards
- Population
- Poverty
- Remote Sensing for Human Dimensions Research
- Earth System Research Laboratory: Global Monitoring Division (NOAA)
"Providing the best possible information on atmospheric constituents that drive climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, and baseline air quality. "
- Environment (World Bank)
"Natural and man-made environmental resources - fresh water, clean air, forests, grasslands, marine resources, and agro-ecosystems - provide sustenance and a foundation for social and economic development. The need to safeguard these resources crosses all borders. Today, the World Bank is one of the key promoters and financiers of environmental upgrading in the developing world. Data here cover forests, biodiversity, emissions, and pollution. Other indicators relevant to the environment are found under data pages for Agriculture & Rural Development, Energy & Mining, Infrastructure, and Urban Development."
- Environmental Data Explorer (archived) (closed in 2016)
Environmental Data Explorer was an authoritative source for data sets used by UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and its partners in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report and other integrated environment assessments. Its online database holds more than 500 different variables, as national, subregional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets (maps), covering themes like Freshwater, Population, Forests, Emissions, Climate, Disasters, Health and GDP. Display them on-the-fly as maps, graphs, data tables or download the data in different formats.
- Environmental Indicators (United Nations Statistical Division)
Global environment statistics on ten indicator themes that include: air and climate, biodiversity, energy and minerals, forests, governance, inland water resources, land and agriculture, marine and coastal areas, natural disasters, and waste.
- FAOSTAT (United Nations)
Provides access to food and agriculture statistics (including crop, livestock, and forestry subsectors) for over 245 countries and territories, and covers all FAO regional groupings from 1961 to the most recent years available. Environment data includes SDG indicators, climate change, and sustainability
- other FAO statistical databases
Agro-MAPS, AQUASTAT, CountrySTAT, FAOSTAT-Agriculture, FishStat, FAOSTAT-Forestry Statistics, Global Livestock Production and Health Atlas (GLiPHA)
- Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data
Links to data reported by the various countries party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
- International Comparison: Urban Air Quality
Selected several urban areas in different countries with available data and compared them with major Canadian cities, providing an overview of how Canadian urban air quality ranks internationally.
- Land surface climate station records
This set of records is one of the global temperature records that have underpinned Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports and numerous scientific studies. The data subset consists of a network of individual land stations that has been designated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for use in climate monitoring and other data that the Met Office has gained permission from the owners to make available. The data contain monthly average temperature values for more than 3,000 land stations.
- Little Green Data Book (World Bank; 2001 - present)
The Little Green Data Book is a ready reference on key environmental data for over 200 countries. Key indicators are organized under the headings of agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, oceans, energy, emission and pollution, and water and sanitation.
- NCDC: quick links
Datasets from the U.S. National Climate Data Center -- mostly U.S., but some international data as well, such as:
- Global daily climatic data (1929-current)
- Monthly & annual worldwide climatic data (1931-1960)
- Global surface database of monthly temperature, precipitation & pressure (1697-current)
- Report on the Environment (ROE) (United States)
The EPA's Report on the Environment (ROE) is an interactive resource that shows how the condition of the environment and human health in the United States is changing over time. Targeted for anyone interested in environmental trends, the ROE presents the best available indicators of national trends in five theme areas of interest to EPA: Air, Water, Land, Human Exposure and Health, and Ecological Condition. EPA selected the 85 ROE indicators to address 23 questions within these five theme areas that are critical to EPA's mission of protecting the environment and human health. EPA updates the ROE indicators on a rolling basis to provide the latest available data and adds new indicators when relevant.
- Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program (EPA, United States)
"... compiles the TRI data on toxic chemical releases and waste management activities reported annually by certain industries as well as federal facilities and makes it available through data files and database tools. The goal ... is to provide communities with information about toxic chemical releases and waste management activities and to support informed decision making at all levels by industry, government, non-governmental organizations, and the public."
- World Development Indicators World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World Bank's annual compilation of data about development. WDI covers a wide range of topics including the environment (i.e., land use, urbanization, emissions).
- World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC)
"The World Ozone Data Centre (WODC) operates a scientific archive and database providing a variety of ozone data sets to the international scientific community. There are over 400 stations represented in the archive some of which comprise over 80 years of continuous data. Data sets include total column ozone, vertical profile data from ozonesonde flights, lidar measurements and the Umkehr technique. The World Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WUDC) like its ozone counterpart, is a scientific archive and database of high resolution spectral, multi-band and broad-band UV data. The database began receiving data in early 1993 and by the end of 1996 had an inventory of over 100 station years and 450,000 spectra from 21 stations. The WUDC archive also must be considered preliminary and the originator(s) of data sets should always be contacted directly for detailed information. A stations listing of available UV data sites can be obtained from the Data in the Archive search form located on the Data page of this Web site. "
- World Radiation Data Centre
The WRDC serves as a central depository for solar radiation data collected at over 1000 measurement sites throughout the world. The WRDC archive contains the following measurements (not all observations are made at all sites):
- Global solar radiation
- Diffuse solar radiation
- Downward atmospheric radiation
- Sunshine duration
- Direct solar radiation (hourly and instantaneous)
- Net total radiation
- Net terrestrial surface radiation (upward)
- Terrestrial surface radiation
- Reflected solar radiation
- Spectral radiation components (instantaneous fluxes)
- World Resources Institute: Data Portals
WRI provides reliable and comprehensive data on a broad array of environmental, economic and social issues", such as: agriculture, biodiversity, climate change, economics, forests, oceans and coasts, water resources. Also includes: country data profiles, data tables, factoids, global trends, global statistics, maps and indicators.
