The results of the 2014 survey on Canadians’ experience and attitudes toward nudity and naturism are now available.

Identifying the size of the naturist movement has always been challenging. While it is easy to count visitors/members of Bare Oaks Family Naturist Park and other clubs, that represents only a small portion of participants. That question was first answered through a 1999 survey. But are the results still relevant a decade and a half later?

We wanted to update the data, determine trends, and reaffirm the original conclusions so Bare Oaks Family Naturist Park coordinated the efforts of the Federation of Canadian Naturists (FCN)and the Fédération Québécoise de naturisme (FQN). A new survey was commissioned using an Ipsos panel to ask a similar but more in depth set of questions. The survey was designed, implemented and interpreted by Mark Wilkins Communications.

The results show that interest in naturism is up from 1999. Here are some of the conclusions:

  • Just over 2-in-3 Canadians (69%) claim to have engaged in at least 1 of 6 naturist behaviours tested. The exact same proportion claim to be open to doing so in future. Experience and openness are notably stronger amongst males, and, regionally, Albertans compared to Canadians living elsewhere.
  • At roughly 6-in-10 overall, experience with sleeping in the nude and openness to doing so in future outstrips experience with and openness to other behaviours to a significant degree.
  • This is followed at close to 1-in-2 by experience with / openness to walking around one’s home in the nude.
  • At roughly 1-in-5, a third tier of experience and openness is represented by swimming in the nude (not in mixed company scoring higher than doing so in mixed company particularly when future behaviour is considered).
  • Finally, experience with visiting a naturist / nude beach of resort reside at roughly 1-in-20, but rises significantly to the 1-in-10 range when considering openness to doing so in future.
  • Regionally, Canadians demonstrate several noteworthy differences in their openness to various naturist behaviours:
    • Albertans have greater experience with and are more open to naturism in the home setting (sleeping, walking around) than Canadians elsewhere.
    • British Columbians and Ontarians lead the way in terms of experience with nude swimming, but Albertans show the greatest openness to consider doing so in future (both in unmixed and mixed company).
    • While British Columbians have the most experience with visiting nude beaches, Albertans and residents of the Prairie provinces are most open to doing so in future – and also lead in terms of openness to visiting a naturist resort in future.
  • Finally, while younger Canadians (< 25 years of age) have not to-date shown a greater proclivity to naturist behaviours (their experience being generally on par with that of Canadians aged 35+), they do demonstrate a higher openness to engaging in all in future (exception: sleeping in the nude, to which Canadians of all ages are roughly equivalent in terms of openness).
  • When we collapse across public behaviours (ie. swimming nude in mixed company or going to a naturist/nude beach or resort), we find that 1-in-5 (21%) Canadians have engaged in such behavior and that 1-in-4 (25%) are open to the idea in future.

You can read the complete survey at:

Photo taken during Spencer Tunick’s installation work in Sydney by Nelly Xiao. Used with permission.