Canada welcomed 19 per cent fewer immigrants in 2025: 'The cuts were quite asymmetrical'

After years of record-high immigration to Canada, significantly fewer immigrants were accepted into the country last year, a rare non-pandemic drop since 2015 when Justin Trudeau was elected prime minister.

There were 19 per cent fewer immigrants to Canada in 2025 than in 2024; that reflects a total of 393,530 new immigrants compared to 483,655 the year before, according to the latest federal government data.

It is Canada’s lowest level of immigration since 2020, when COVID greatly reduced international travel, and deviates from a decade-long pattern of accelerating increases.

The change in immigration in 2025 varied by region in Canada, but the biggest swings were down, according to an analysis of the government’s data by the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS).

“The cuts were quite asymmetrical and uneven across categories and regions,” said Jack Jedwab, president of the Montreal-based ACS.

“With immigration being the sole source of population growth the unevenness of the reductions implies that some parts of the country will face greater population decline than others.”

The steepest decreases in immigration were experienced in Atlantic Canada and in the Prairie provinces; modest decreases in most other provinces; while Quebec had a sliver of an uptick, and the north experienced a modest increase.

Specifically, in P.E.I. 44 per cent fewer immigrants arrived last year, which is the province with the biggest drop. There were 40 per cent fewer immigrants in Saskatchewan, 36 per cent fewer in Nova Scotia, 32 per cent fewer in Alberta, and 30 per cent fewer in New Brunswick.

Immigration dropped 25 per cent in the Yukon in 2025, 23 per cent in Manitoba, 20 per cent in B.C., 18 per cent in Ontario, and 12 per cent in Newfoundland.

There were slight or modest increases in immigration in three regions: Nunavut was up 15 per cent, Northwest Territories up four per cent, while Quebec was up one per cent.

The reduced numbers were not equally shared across immigrant categories — refugees were the hardest hit, followed by economic immigrants, and then family sponsored immigrants, according to the analysis.

Refugee arrivals were down 23 per cent last year compared to 2024, a category of immigration that was lower in every province, with the largest drops in Saskatchewan (down 32.5 per cent) and the second largest drop of 26.5 per cent in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. The smallest drop was in P.E.I. (five per cent) and Quebec (5.5 per cent).

Compared to the 23 per cent drop in refugees, the arrival of family sponsored immigrants dropped by only 10 per cent nationally last year. The biggest drops were in B.C. (13 per cent) and Ontario (11 per cent).

Economic immigrants, while down 19 per cent nationally, were disproportionately down in P.E.I. (47 per cent), and Nova Scotia (40 per cent). The Northwest Territories, while having one of the lowest levels of immigration saw an increase of 16 per cent in this category, and Quebec was the only other region to see an increase in economic immigration, at 2.8 per cent.

“Quebec was almost unaffected by these cuts,” said Jedwab.

“Quebec, with its agreement with the federal government, saw no reductions in permanent residents, and Ontario saw a much lesser reduction than did the rest of the country,” he said. “In some ways, that means the cuts were even deeper for the rest of Canada if Quebec didn’t feel any of the effects.”

Where Canada’s immigrants came from also changed.

Permanent resident admissions to Canada — immigrants who have been granted landed immigrant status — were down in 2025 with significant fluctuations in the country of their origin.

Permanent residents from Iran and Afghanistan dropped the most significantly, at 33.3 per cent and 33.1 per cent respectively, followed by a drop of 29.6 per cent from China, a 25.7 per cent drop from both Pakistan and Eritrea, and a 22.5 per cent drop from India.

Other significant drops were in those from the Philippines (22 per cent), Nigeria (20 per cent), the United States (19.5), and Algeria (eight per cent).

There was a significant increase in permanent resident admissions from Ukraine (23.3 per cent) and France (20.3 per cent) and an 8.1 per cent increase in those from Cameroon.

Nationally, the number of study permit holders for international students dropped by more than 25 per cent in 2025 compared to 2024. That represents 131,010 fewer new permits for foreign students in Canada.

The drop in study permits for students from India — by far the largest source of student immigrants — dropped steeply by 50 per cent last year, from 188,175 to 94,605. That means 72 per cent of the entire reduction in study permits hit students from India.

Study permits issued for students from China dropped 12.5 per cent, from 56,175 to 49,125, and from Nigeria, which dropped 3.3 per cent from 26,445 to 25,570. Those were the three largest national groups for study permits in 2025.

There was a rise in study permits for students from the United States (up 25.7 per cent from 6,780 to 8,525), Korea (up 3.6 per cent from 8,455 to 8,765) and Ukraine (up 32 per cent from 5,010 to 6,630).

There was a nearly 12 per cent reduction in the number of temporary foreign workers (TFW) admitted to Canada in 2025 across the country, from 190,945 to 168,245.

The decline in TFWs was seen most sharply in Manitoba, which went from 4,715 in 2024 to 3,315 last year, a drop of 29.6 per cent, Alberta (from 24,845 to 17,990 for a drop of 27.6 per cent), Quebec (from 56,330 to 46,970 for a drop of 16.6 per cent), and Saskatchewan (from 3,315 to 2,845 for a drop of 14 per cent).

The immigration data comes as Canada’s overall population has essentially flatlined. The country added only 47,098 people in the second quarter of 2025, about a 0.1 per cent population increase.

Jedwab said that is Canada’s lowest growth rate since 1946, when comparable record keeping began, apart from during the COVID pandemic. Canada’s population growth rate on July 1, 2023, of 3.3 per cent marked the highest growth rate recorded for any 12-month period since 1957, which came during the Hungarian refugee crisis and the height of the baby boom, he said.

If Ottawa’s new immigration plan continues, the numbers next year should be even lower.

Ottawa introduced its 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan last year intending to bring “a return to sustainable immigration levels,” according to the department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Ottawa’s goal is to reduce Canada’s temporary population to less than five per cent of the total population by the end of 2027.

The data shows that government policy is the dominant determinant of immigration levels to Canada, with the election of Trudeau to a Liberal majority government in 2015 a key inflection point.

The total number of immigrants to Canada increased at an average annual rate of four per cent during the years 2000 to 2015, the year Trudeau was elected prime minister. From 2016 to 2024, it rose at an average annual rate of 15 per cent, according to a Fraser Institute study.

Ottawa’s enthusiasm for increasing immigration targets soured in 2024 with increasing public concerns, particularly over housing.

Jedwab analyzed the government’s internal public opinion polling on immigration issues that had been prepared for IRCC in 2025.

“The questions they are asking and the results they get are used to advise policy makers and drive policy,” Jedwab said.

The government’s last annual opinion poll on immigration, in August 2025, showed 60 per cent of respondents said there are “too many” immigrants coming to Canada, with only four per cent saying there were “too few” and 28 per cent saying the level was “about right.”

The poll found 42 per cent of respondents felt immigration to Canada was positive while 37 per cent said it was negative, but when asked about immigration’s impact on their own neighbourhood, only 28 per cent said it was positive and 31 per cent negative.

Among those Canadians who viewed immigration as having a negative impact on Canada, the main concerns were, in order: housing shortages, competition for jobs, adaptability concerns and strain on public resources.

The government’s polling data also highlighted more ambiguity from Canadians on immigration.

While 56 per cent of respondents said they were proud of Canada’s reputation as an open and welcoming society, 48 per cent said immigration was changing the country in ways they didn’t like, and 66 per cent said immigrants need to do more to integrate into Canadian society.

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