Methodology

Where the data comes from, what it covers and what it leaves out, how it is prepared, and how to read it.

Data sources

Data coverage

  • Fiscal years 2005-06 to 2024-25 (April to March), in nominal Canadian dollars. Amounts are reported disbursements: money spent, not money promised.
  • Files before 2016-17 cover only the development agency (CIDA, later DFATD). From 2016-17 they cover every federal department and the provinces, which is why totals jump that year.
  • Aid type was not recorded before 2010-11, and project titles were not recorded before 2016-17.
  • Included because the government reports them as international assistance: loans and other repayable flows, in-Canada refugee costs, administrative costs, scholarships and imputed student costs, and development awareness. The dashboard shows loans and in-Canada spending separately.
  • Not included: private donations, and anything a department or province did not report to Global Affairs for these files.
  • Negative amounts are repayments or corrections, as filed.
  • Projects that never reached the Project Browser have no project link.

How the data is prepared

The yearly files use three different layouts. Department, country, aid-type and recipient spellings were merged where they plainly name the same thing (for example "Tanzania,Un Rep" and "Tanzania"). Sectors are grouped by the first three digits of the OECD sector code. Each country is assigned the region it is most often filed under, and Middle East countries are grouped together. "Counted as aid, spent in Canada" covers the in-Canada items listed above, all of which OECD rules allow to be reported as aid.

Every build spot-checks lines on the site against the original files. The dashboard lists every original spreadsheet row behind each project, with a link to its yearly file.

Disclaimer

Canada's Aid Ledger is part of Publicly, an independent project. It is not affiliated with the Government of Canada, any other government, court or agency, or any political party.

These pages are built by automated processing of the records the government publishes, with code written and run with the help of AI. We check our yearly totals against the government's official reports listed above, and a build that fails this check is not published. Errors in the source files or in our processing can still occur. Treat every figure as a pointer to the original record and verify it there before you rely on it: each project links to the lines and files it comes from.

Figures are reported disbursements, not audited findings. A project or recipient appearing on this site is not an allegation of wrongdoing. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice.

Found a mistake? Report it on the corrections page.

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Canada's Aid Ledger is part of Publicly: sites built from government and court records, with every fact linked to its source. Publicly is not affiliated with any government. Visits are counted with Google Analytics, which sets cookies.