Thanksgiving in Canada: stuffing you full of statistics

Thanksgiving is here, and Canadians are ready to gobble-gobble their way through tasty dinners. And you know Statistics Canada wants a seat at the table! Drumstick roll please…here are the numbers.

First, pass the turkey! According to our recently released numbers from the 2021 Census of Agriculture, there were 2,225 turkey-producing farms across Canada reporting a total of nearly 6.1 million birds.

Regionally, just over two-fifths (40.3%) of those birds reported to the census were in Ontario. There were more turkeys declared in the agricultural hub of Southern Ontario alone (1.5 million) than the combined total of the three Prairie provinces (1.3 million).

But hold the gravy, says one of the Prairie provinces. Based on the 2021 Census of Population and Census of Agriculture, there was nearly half a turkey (0.49) per Manitoban, far ahead of Nova Scotia (0.20) and Ontario (0.17) among provinces flocking over their turkey numbers.

And for gravy and dinner rolls, you need wheat to make the flour. Canadian producers milled 281,000 tonnes of wheat in August 2022 to make 210,000 tonnes of wheat flour. Wheat production this year is expected to top production in 2021, which is good news given the sharp increase in prices earlier in 2022 due to growing conditions and global supply issues.

Prices for bakery products, including bread, were up 15.4% year over year in August 2022, as were prices for sugar and confectionery (+11.3%), preserved fruit and fruit preparations (+9.8%), fresh fruit (+13.2%), and nuts and seeds (+2.8%), so the cranberry sauce and desserts will also cost more this year.

Pumpkin pie is the classic Thanksgiving dessert staple. Canadian farmers produced 84,458 tonnes of pumpkins in 2021, lower than 2020’s record haul of 96,220 tonnes, but a roughly three-quarter (76.0%) increase from 2008.

Don’t worry apple, blueberry and other pie lovers—we see you, too. Canadian farmers produced 347,125 tonnes of apples in 2021 and 142,779 tonnes of fresh blueberries. And if you want to make fresh cranberry sauce, there were 155,064 tonnes of fresh cranberries produced.

All this dessert talk, and we almost forgot about the mashed potatoes. In 2021, 5.69 million tonnes of potatoes were produced in Canada. In 2022, farmers planted 385,128 acres of spuds (up 0.1% from 2021), and over one-fifth (20.9%) of that acreage was in Prince Edward Island.

And finally—meals need a lot of dishes. Always help with the dishes before you fall into your turkey coma on the couch while watching football!

Statistics Canada’s numbers show that from 2012 to 2021, Canadians bought more tableware, kitchenware, cookware and bakeware during the fourth quarter (October to December) than in the other quarters. Christmas dinner is always just around the corner—until then, happy Thanksgiving, Canada!