USD/CAD Exchange Rate History: Loonie per Dollar Since 1971

1 USD = 1.3957 CAD on October 30, 2026, the latest rate in this Federal Reserve series. This dataset gives the USD to CAD exchange rate by date on US business days since January 4, 1971, from the Federal Reserve H.10 release (FRED series DEXCAUS), expressed as Canadian dollars per US dollar. A higher number means a stronger US dollar; a lower number means a stronger loonie. Look up a rate by date, or read the monthly and yearly tables below the chart.

Dataset: USD/CAD Exchange Rate (1971–2026) · Updated 2026-10-30

Data provided as is, with no warranty of accuracy or timeliness. Check any figure against the primary source cited on this page before using it. Terms: legal notice.

Source: Federal Reserve Board · H.10 Foreign Exchange Rates (via FRED)

USD to CAD Exchange Rate by Date

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns. Each row represents one business day.

Column names match the CSV headers exactly.

Download the Complete Dataset

The full dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats: daily observations spanning 1971–2026.

Data provided as is, with no warranty of accuracy or timeliness. Check any figure against the primary source cited on this page before using it. Terms: legal notice.

FRED Direct CSV Access

The underlying data is published in the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database under the series code DEXCAUS, sourced from the Federal Reserve Board’s H.10 release:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=DEXCAUS

The Eco3min dataset mirrors the same daily series, packaged in a stable, versionable CSV with consistent column names, designed for direct ingestion in Python, R, or any data pipeline. The URL never changes, making it suitable for automated scripts.

Direct CSV Access: Eco3min Structured Dataset

https://eco3min.fr/dataset/usd-cad-exchange-rate.csv

This URL returns the complete dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool.

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/usd-cad-exchange-rate.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"])

print(df.head())
print(df["usd_cad"].describe())

df.plot(x="date", y="usd_cad", title="USD/CAD Exchange Rate", legend=False)

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/usd-cad-exchange-rate.csv"
df <- read_csv(url)

head(df)
summary(df$usd_cad)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL, no download or API key required.

Methodology

The Federal Reserve reports the Canadian dollars per US dollar noon buying rate in New York, in its H.10 release.

The rates are daily but the release is weekly: the Federal Reserve publishes them on Mondays, for the previous business week, so this series has no rate for today and its latest value is usually several days old. Values are indicative noon buying rates in New York, not transactable quotes, and there are no observations on weekends or US holidays. The series begins on January 4, 1971.

This dataset is updated via an automated pull from the FRED API (series DEXCAUS) by an Eco3min pipeline running on GitHub Actions, which regenerates the cleaned CSV and Excel files and refreshes the page metadata.

Data Quality & Provider Notes

The Federal Reserve H.10 rates are a standard, widely cited reference for bilateral exchange rates. A few provider-specific points matter when using this series.

• Indicative, not transactable. H.10 rates are reference rates collected at a set time of day. They will differ from the bid/ask a trader actually deals on, and from other fixings (ECB, WM/Refinitiv 4pm London).
• Gaps on non-business days. There are no observations on weekends or US public holidays, so the series is not strictly continuous in calendar time. The H.10 file also has no quote on a few other weekdays, such as September 11, 2001.
• Different from the Bank of Canada rate. For Canadian tax returns, the Canada Revenue Agency generally refers to the Bank of Canada exchange rate for the day a foreign-currency amount arises, and accepts other sources under conditions (CRA line 12100 guidance). Since 2017 the Bank of Canada rate is a daily average published by 16:30 ET, while H.10 is a noon rate in New York, so the two can differ for the same date.
• Bilateral, not trade-weighted. This is a single currency pair. It is not the broad, trade-weighted dollar index, which aggregates many bilateral rates.
• Discontinued or restated quotes. The Federal Reserve has occasionally changed how a rate is reported; treat very long histories as broadly consistent rather than methodologically identical throughout.

Common Pitfalls When Using This Series

1. Reading the quotation direction backwards. This series is Canadian dollars per US dollar, so the number rises when the US dollar strengthens and falls when the loonie strengthens. Getting the direction wrong inverts every move and every regime described below.
2. Treating gaps as missing data. Weekends and holidays have no H.10 observation; this is by design, not a data error. Resample carefully before computing returns.
3. Confusing a bilateral rate with the dollar’s overall strength. One pair can move on currency-specific news while the broad, trade-weighted dollar barely moves, and vice versa.

Historical Regimes

1971–2002: From parity to the series high. Until the end of 1976 the pair stayed between 0.9577 (April 25, 1974) and 1.04 (August 18, 1975), close to parity. The Canadian dollar then weakened to 1.4380 on February 4, 1986, recovered to 1.1203 on November 1, 1991, and fell to the series high of 1.6128 per US dollar on January 18, 2002.

2003–2013: Commodity boom and parity. WTI crude rose from $31.97 on January 2, 2003 to $145.31 on July 3, 2008. The pair fell from 1.5750 to its series low of 0.9168 on November 7, 2007, with WTI at $96.46, and was back at 1.0204 on the day of the oil peak. It stood below 1.00 at times in 2007-2008 and 2010-2013, for the last time on February 7, 2013.

2014–2016: Oil crash. WTI fell from $107.95 on June 20, 2014 to $26.19 on February 11, 2016, which cut Canada’s terms of trade, and the pair climbed to 1.4592 on January 20, 2016.

2017–October 2026: Range. Between January 2017 and October 2026 the pair moved between 1.2031 (June 1, 2021) and 1.4601 (February 3, 2025). Those two extremes came with similar oil prices: WTI at $67.80 and $73.52 on those days.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

Developed Markets (ex-US) Hub

This dataset is part of the Eco3min repository of exchange rates, government bond yields, and policy rates for the major developed economies outside the United States, all sourced from the Federal Reserve and the OECD via FRED.

Explore the Developed Markets (ex-US) Hub

Sources

• Federal Reserve Board: H.10 Foreign Exchange Rates, USD/CAD
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: FRED database, series DEXCAUS
• Federal Reserve H.10 noon buying rate, New York: basis underlying the FRED series
• Bank of Canada: daily exchange rates lookup (comparison reference, not used in this dataset)
• Canada Revenue Agency: line 12100 guidance on converting foreign-currency amounts (comparison reference, not used in this dataset)

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). USD/CAD Exchange Rate: Daily (1971-2026). Source: Federal Reserve Board H.10 via FRED.<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/usd-cad-exchange-rate-history-dataset/