The purpose of this publication is to assemble all the data from the elemental analyses performed in the laboratory that are pertinent to the evaluation of background levels of minor elements in mineral soils of Canada. These data include information published previously on Hg (McKeague and Kloosterman 1974) and on soils studied in the International Joint Commission project (Whitby et al. 1978a, 1978b). The data are compared with other published data on minor elements in soil in this country. Many relevant reports have been published in the past decade. When possible, the relationships between geological material and minor element content of the soils are broadly identified. Evidence of redistribution of minor elements during pedogenesis is noted, and relationships between contents of specific minor elements and other soil properties are evaluated statistically. The current state of knowledge of background levels of minor elements in Canadian soils is summarized, and the most serious gaps in present information are pointed out. Data on the minor element content of Organic soils (Mathur and Sanderson 1978, Mathur and Lévesque 1979) are not included here.