Canada Records First Annual Population Decrease in 2025: StatCan

People cross the street at Yonge-Dundas Square during rush hour in Toronto on Aug. 28, 2024. The Canadian Press/Paige Taylor White

Statistics Canada’s latest data indicates Canada’s population declined by more than 100,000 people last year, mainly due to a drop in the number of temporary residents as Ottawa seeks to recalibrate immigration levels.

Canada’s population decreased by 102,436 people from Jan. 1, 2025, to Jan. 1, 2026, according to a March 18 StatCan report. The 2025 calendar year is the first year where estimates have shown a decrease in population size, StatCan told The Epoch Times.

Although the population had increased by 77,136 in the first six months of the year, the growth was not enough to outweigh the population losses in the last six months of the year. Population declined by 103,504 people in the fourth quarter, after declining by 76,068 in the third quarter.

StatCan’s preliminary estimates indicate Canada’s population was 41,472,081 on Jan. 1.

The agency says a decline in temporary residents was the leading factor in Canada’s population decline last year, with the number of those residents decreasing by 171,296 in the fourth quarter. The number of temporary residents in Canada had reached more than 3.1 million on Oct. 1, 2024, before declining to approximately 2.7 million by the beginning of this January.

Canada also welcomed fewer permanent residents in the fourth quarter of 2025, roughly 83,000, representing a 19.6 percent decline compared to the number of permanent residents welcomed in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Meanwhile, the natural population in Canada declined in the fourth quarter of 2025, meaning there were more deaths than births.

StatCan said Ontario remained the number one destination for immigrants and welcomed 42.3 percent of all new immigrants to the country in the fourth quarter last year. Quebec was the only province that welcomed more new immigrants in the fourth quarter of 2025 than the same time period in 2024.

The agency also said Alberta remained the top destination for interprovincial migrants, for the 14th consecutive quarter. Meanwhile, Ontario and Quebec experienced declines in interprovincial migration in the fourth quarter last year.

The agency says its preliminary estimates will be updated “in the coming months,” noting that it is possible the updates will be “of greater scope” than in past years due to recent changes in government policies relating to immigration.

This includes a new temporary measure announced on March 13 to help the provincial government in Quebec retain temporary skilled workers, which could lead to increases in extensions of work and study permits.

Even with the recent changes, StatCan says the population in the fourth quarter of 2025 is still expected to remain “well below” the levels in the fourth quarters of 2023 and 2024. Canada’s population had increased by 80,385 people in the fourth quarter of 2024, and by 256,804 people in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Immigration Levels

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has sought to “return immigration to sustainable levels” by decreasing new permanent and temporary resident admission targets.

The Carney government’s first budget, released last November, included its 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan, which says the government is focusing on “taking back control over the immigration system.”

The plan notes that 3.3 percent of Canada’s population were temporary residents in 2018, and by 2024 the number had more than doubled to 7.5 percent. The plan calls this “an unprecedented rate of growth that put pressure on housing supply, the healthcare system, and schools.”

“Canada’s new government recognises that this system is no longer sustainable, and we are determined to make it so, for everyone who lives in and comes to this country,” the plan reads.

The plan pledges to reduce the target for new temporary resident admissions from 673,650 in 2025 to 385,000 in 2026, and 370,000 in 2027 and 2028. The plan also pledges to stabilize permanent resident admission targets at 380,000 per year for three years, down from 395,000 in 2025.

These targets will reduce the total number of temporary residents to less than 5 percent of Canada’s population by the end of 2027, and keep permanent resident arrivals at less than 1 percent of the population beyond 2027, the plan says.

The Carney government’s effort to recalibrate immigration levels comes after Ottawa had announced plans in 2020 to increase immigration rates, and further increased immigration rates in late 2022, saying the move would allow Canadian businesses to fill worker shortages. Canada’s population grew from 38 million in July 2020 to an estimated 41.2 million by July 2024.

In 2024, then-Immigration Minister Marc Miller, who took the role over from Sean Fraser in late July 2023, said immigration was “out of control,” and announced a number of steps to curb temporary foreign workers and foreign students, including a two-year cap on visas for foreign students that aimed to bring down the number by 35 percent.

Matthew Horwood and Noé Chartier contributed to this report.