During the Bureau's history Canada has developed from a country dependent on a staple economy to a mature industrial power poised at the brink of the information era. Information needs have mushroomed in both quantity and complexity; at the same time the technology for gathering, compiling, analysing, and disseminating information has been revolutionized. Worton looks at how Canada's statistical system has coped with these tremendous changes and outlines some notable Canadian contributions to the science and production of statistics.