A look at how much mail Canada Post delivers, amid a strike notice

Amid a potential postal worker strike, here’s a look at how many letters and parcels the corporation delivers and how those numbers have changed in the internet age.

Email, cell phones, online shopping, the pandemic — the past two decades have wholly transformed the way people communicate and shop, and Canada’s postal service has had to roll with the punches.

Mail volume has steadily declined since 2006, and while package deliveries have climbed, the profits for Canada Post have not.

Amid a potential postal worker strike, here’s a look at how many letters and parcels the corporation delivers and how those numbers have changed in the internet age.

Canada Post divides its mail into three categories: transaction mail (letters), parcels and direct marketing. The total volume of mail has been eroding over the past 20 years.

Letter mail has been especially affected. In 2006, at its peak, Canada Post delivered nearly 5.5 billion letters. As of 2023, that number has dwindled by more than half, with only 2.2 billion letters getting stamped and sent last year.

In its 2023 annual report, Canada Post called it 'The Great Mail Decline.'

In 2023, Canada Post delivered close to 300 million parcels. The report describes the corporation’s shift to delivering parcels to "serve the growing, competitive ecommerce market."