Demographic statistics on diversity in the judiciary

Judicial Applicants and Appointees

The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs collects and publishes statistical and demographic information on candidates and appointments to the judiciary. Based on voluntary disclosure by candidates through self-identification in the Questionnaire for judicial appointment, these statistics relate to diversity (see p. 3 of the candidates’ Questionnaire) and language proficiency (see p. 6 of the Questionnaire).

October 29, 2025 – October 28, 2026

	Total	Male	Female	Other	Indigenous individual	Racialized individual	Ethnic/Cultural Group or other	Individual with disability	2SLGBTQI+ individual	Woman	Read court materials	Discuss legal matters	Converse with counsel	Understand oral submissions	Write decisions	Conduct hearings	All 6 abilities
	Total	Gender			Diversity						Language Proficiency in both Official Languages
Applications Received	252	138	114	0	5	29	46	10	15	114	103	78	76	87	56	63	55
Candidates Assessed	252	140	112	0	3	37	51	8	14	112	101	76	73	84	62	65	59
Candidates Highly Rec.¹	27	19	8	0	1	1	4	0	1	8	11	9	10	10	8	8	8
Candidates Recommended¹	71	31	40	0	1	12	16	0	6	40	31	24	22	27	19	18	17
Candidates Unable to Rec.¹	154	90	64	0	1	24	31	8	7	64	59	43	41	47	35	39	34
Newly Appointed Judges	72	35	37	0	0	6	11	0	4	37	37	31	30	34	24	24	24

Please note that in addition to the 72 newly appointed judges, 22 other judges were appointed or elevated to other courts during the same period; 15 men and 7 women. For example, this would include judges appointed to courts of appeal from the trial level courts. There were therefore 94 appointments during this period.

1. Please note that in their application, candidates may apply to more than one court. As a result, a candidate may receive different ratings from the Judicial Advisory Committees depending on the court—for example, “Highly Recommended” for one court, “Recommended” for another, and “Unable to Recommend” for a third. For ease of reference, the statistics above reflect the highest rating each candidate received.

Periods:

Judges currently on the bench

The Government of Canada has committed to tracking data on the diversity of judicial appointees. The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs therefore publishes annual demographic statistics, not only regarding newly appointed judicial candidates and judges, but also, below, regarding all federally appointed judges. These statistics include judges appointed after 2016, who completed a questionnaire following reforms brought to the appointment process which included specific questions relating to diversity, and also those appointed before 2016, who completed a questionnaire which included a more general question regarding diversity. Following a detailed analysis carried out by the Office of the Commissioner of the responses from each of those judges appointed before 2016, the information has been classified according to the categories established in the current questionnaire.

As of February 1, 2026

	Number of Judges	Indigenous individual	Racialized individual	Ethnic/Cultural Group or other	Individual with Disability	2SLGBTQI+ individual	Woman
Judges appointed before 2016	487	5	14	36	1	1	216
Judges appointed after 2016	702	25	80	106	5	38	368
TOTAL:	1189	30	94	142	6	39	584