Last Updated On 22 June 2026, 11:02 AM EDT (Toronto Time)
A record 30,092 Canadian citizens and permanent residents emigrated from Canada in the first quarter of 2026, the highest Q1 emigration count ever recorded in Statistics Canada’s latest quarterly demographic data released on June 17, 2026.
In the same three-month window, another 199,259 non-permanent residents left the country while only 81,380 arrived, producing a net loss of 117,879 temporary residents.
After factoring in 83,149 new permanent residents and natural population change, Canada still recorded a net population decline of 55,025 in Q1 2026, bringing the estimated population down to 41,417,056 as of April 1, 2026.
This is the second consecutive quarter of outright population decline, following a loss of 103,504 people in Q4 2025.
The Q1 2026 figures confirm that the full-year 2025 emigration total of 120,640 was not a ceiling but a launchpad.
That 2025 annual figure is itself the highest in Statistics Canada’s entire dataset, which stretches back to 1952, surpassing even the 1960s brain drain era when skilled Canadians left for higher wages in the United States.
Net emigration, which subtracts returning emigrants from total departures, also hit an all-time high of 65,706 in 2025, eclipsing the previous record of 62,803 set in 1997.
The scale of these numbers, arriving alongside reduced immigration targets under the 2026–2028 levels plan and a mass exit of temporary residents, signals a demographic inflection point that Canada has not experienced in modern history.
Table of Contents
What the Q1 2026 Data Shows
The June 17, 2026 release from Statistics Canada provides preliminary estimates for the January 1 to April 1, 2026 period.
On the emigration side, 30,092 Canadian citizens and permanent residents left the country in Q1 2026, exceeding Q1 2025 by 276 departures.
Another 9,952 returning emigrants came back to Canada in the same quarter, resulting in a net emigration of 20,140 for Q1 2026.
That net figure alone is higher than Canada’s full-year net emigration in 2020, when international mobility was heavily disrupted.
The non-permanent resident picture is even more dramatic.
Only 81,380 new non-permanent residents entered Canada in Q1 2026, while 199,259 left, producing a net loss of 117,879 temporary residents in a single quarter.
This mass departure aligns with Ottawa’s stated goal of reducing temporary residents to 5% of the population, but the speed of the contraction is exceeding most forecasts.
After peaking at 3,149,131 in Q3 2024, Canada’s non-permanent resident population has dropped to an estimated 2,558,562 as of April 1, 2026.
That is a decline of 590,569 temporary residents in six quarters.
Immigration also slowed sharply, with only 83,149 new permanent residents arriving in Q1 2026, compared to 104,210 in Q1 2025.
Alberta recorded the strongest provincial growth in Q1 2026 at 0.2%, while Nova Scotia also posted positive growth at 0.1%. Several major provinces still declined, including Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia, each down 0.2%.
Full-Year 2025 Emigration Reached 120,640, the All-Time Record
INC first reported on the accelerating emigration trend in March 2025 when annual departures hit a seven-year high based on earlier data.
The complete 2025 figures now confirm that emigration has not just continued to rise but has reached an unprecedented level.
| Year | Total Emigrants | Net Emigration | Year-Over-Year Change |
| Q1 2026 only | 30,092 | 20,140 | Highest Q1 ever |
| 2025 | 120,640 | 65,706 | +1.9% (All-time record) |
| 2024 | 118,409 | 64,452 | 0.9% |
| 2023 | 117,367 | 64,080 | 6.5% |
| 2022 | 110,172 | 58,570 | 32.2% |
| 2021 | 83,357 | 39,161 | 38.0% |
| 2020 | 60,407 | 19,235 | COVID-era low |
| 2019 | 90,460 | 35,791 | Pre-pandemic baseline |
The combined total for the four-year window from 2022 through 2025 is 466,588 emigrants, a volume that represents a structural shift in how Canadians view the country’s long-term livability.
Returning emigrants partially offset these losses, with 54,934 people coming back to Canada in 2025.
That still left a net outflow of 65,706, meaning Canada lost roughly 180 residents per day on a net basis to emigration alone last year.
If the remaining three quarters of 2026 follow the 2025 seasonal pattern, the country is on pace to record approximately 121,000 emigrants by year end, which would set a new record for the third consecutive year.
Quarterly Breakdown Shows a Persistent Seasonal Pattern
The Statistics Canada international migration dashboard reveals a consistent seasonal pattern: Q3 drives the highest emigration in every year, followed by Q1, while Q2 and Q4 are relatively lower.
| Year | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 30,092 | — | — | — |
| 2025 | 29,816 | 24,714 | 41,203 | 24,907 |
| 2024 | 28,938 | 23,985 | 40,818 | 24,668 |
| 2023 | 28,289 | 25,513 | 39,617 | 23,948 |
| 2022 | 25,394 | 25,289 | 35,112 | 24,377 |
Q3 2025 logged 41,203 departures, the highest quarterly emigrant count since Q3 2016 and one of the highest single-quarter totals in the full dataset.
The Q3 spike likely reflects end-of-summer relocations, school enrollment cycles in destination countries, and fiscal year timing for employers in the United States and Europe.
Every single Q1 from 2022 through 2026 has set a new first-quarter record, confirming that the upward pressure on emigration is not seasonal noise but a durable trend.
Where 2025 Fits in 74 Years of Emigration Data
The previous highest annual totals came during the 1960s, when a well-documented brain drain pulled Canadian scientists, engineers, and medical professionals toward higher wages and better-funded institutions in the United States.
| Year | Emigrants | Context |
| 2025 | 120,640 | All-time record in Statistics Canada data (since 1952) |
| 2024 | 118,409 | Housing and affordability pressures persist |
| 2022 | 110,172 | Post-COVID rebound in international mobility |
| 2017 | 104,013 | First full year under new methodology |
| 1997 | 53,684* | Highest net emigration year before 2023 (*raw count lower due to pre-2016 methodology) |
| 1967 | 108,462 | Previous record; peak of 1960s brain drain |
| 1965 | 105,307 | U.S. demand for skilled Canadian professionals |
Note: Methodology changed in Q3 2016, redistributing net temporary emigration into emigrants and returning emigrants. Net emigration is comparable across the entire time series.
The methodology note matters because Statistics Canada broadened the definition of emigrants in Q3 2016 to include temporary emigrants who had previously been counted separately.
This means direct comparisons of raw emigrant counts between pre-2016 and post-2016 years require caution.
However, net emigration, which is calculated as emigrants minus returning emigrants, remains consistent and comparable across the full 74-year series.
On that comparable net basis, 2025’s 65,706 exceeds every year since 1952, including the 1997 peak of 62,803 that marked the height of the tech brain drain to Silicon Valley.
Non-Permanent Residents Are Leaving at an Unprecedented Pace
While the emigration of Canadian citizens and permanent residents dominates the headline, the mass departure of non-permanent residents is the larger demographic force reshaping the country.
The federal government’s 2026–2028 levels plan reduces temporary resident arrivals from 673,650 in 2025 to 385,000 in 2026, a 43% cut in a single year.
Simultaneously, new study permit rules for 2026 cap international student admissions at 408,000, 7% below 2025 levels and 16% below 2024.
The result is a two-directional squeeze: fewer temporary residents entering, and more leaving as permits expire without renewal.
| Quarter | NPR Inflows | NPR Outflows | Net Change |
| Q1 2026 | 81,380 | 199,259 | -117,879 |
| Q4 2025 | 77,084 | 248,380 | -171,296 |
| Q3 2025 | 163,026 | 339,505 | -176,479 |
| Q2 2025 | 140,331 | 199,050 | -58,719 |
| Q1 2025 | 115,837 | 171,031 | -55,194 |
The Q3 2025 outflow of 339,505 non-permanent residents was the largest single-quarter temporary resident departure in Canadian history, more than 140,000 higher than the Q2 2025 outflow of 199,050.
Statistics Canada noted in the release that these estimates are preliminary and that recent policy changes, including work and study permit extensions announced in March 2026, could lead to revisions when updated estimates are published in September 2026.
Approximately 1.9 million temporary residents are expected to see their permits expire across 2026, with over 314,000 work permits expiring in Q1 alone according to IRCC’s departmental plan.
Ontario Keeps Losing, Alberta Keeps Winning
The population story inside Canada’s borders is equally revealing, as interprovincial migration data from Table 17-10-0020-01 shows regional shifts that reinforce the emigration trend.
Ontario lost a net 14,044 people to other provinces in 2025, an improvement from the 34,075 net loss in 2024 but still representing a sustained exodus from the country’s most populous province.
Alberta recorded a 15th consecutive quarter as the top interprovincial destination, with its energy, agriculture, and technology sectors drawing workers from across the country.
| Province | Q1 2026 Net | 2025 Net | 2024 Net | 2023 Net |
| Alberta | 6,006 | 22,216 | 37,762 | 44,363 |
| British Columbia | 1,581 | 3,175 | -2,137 | 718 |
| Nova Scotia | 1,203 | 3,272 | 6,309 | 8,325 |
| New Brunswick | -79 | -653 | 2,912 | 5,013 |
| Manitoba | -634 | -3,738 | -5,959 | -10,152 |
| Saskatchewan | -864 | -3,276 | -2,967 | -6,004 |
| Quebec | -1,871 | -7,592 | -3,369 | -8,901 |
| Ontario | -5,774 | -14,044 | -34,075 | -34,846 |
The total volume of interprovincial moves fell from 391,452 in 2022 to 316,087 in 2025, suggesting that some of the internal mobility that drove the post-pandemic reshuffling may be stabilizing.
New Brunswick’s reversal from a net gain of 2,912 in 2024 to a net loss of 653 in 2025 is a notable shift.
The Atlantic provinces had been consistent beneficiaries of pandemic-era remote work migration, but that advantage appears to be fading as PNP retention strategies struggle to keep newcomers in smaller provinces.
Quebec lost 7,592 residents to other provinces in 2025, a sharp increase from the 3,369 net loss in 2024, likely influenced by language policy changes and cost-of-living pressures in Montreal.
What Is Driving Record Emigration From Canada
The record numbers are the product of several reinforcing pressures that have intensified simultaneously since 2022.
Housing and Cost of Living
The average home price remains above $650,000 nationally, with Toronto and Vancouver well above $1 million despite modest corrections in some submarkets.
Rental costs have eased slightly from their 2023 peaks but remain elevated in the employment-dense cities where most professionals work.
For high-skilled workers earning competitive salaries, the same gross income stretches significantly further in U.S. metros like Austin, Nashville, Raleigh, or Phoenix, where housing costs are 30% to 50% lower and take-home pay is higher after tax.
Tax Differential With the United States
A software engineer earning $150,000 CAD in Toronto faces a combined federal-provincial marginal tax rate exceeding 43%.
The equivalent role in a zero-income-tax U.S. state like Texas or Florida carries a federal marginal rate of roughly 24% on comparable pre-tax income after currency conversion.
That after-tax gap has been a persistent pull factor for Canada’s most mobile and highest-earning professionals in technology, finance, and healthcare.
Healthcare Wait Times
The median wait from specialist referral to treatment now exceeds 27 weeks nationally, among the longest in the developed world.
For families with urgent specialist needs, the inability to access timely care acts as both a quality-of-life concern and a direct push factor toward countries with faster healthcare access.
Policy-Driven Departures of Temporary Residents
The federal government’s deliberate strategy to reduce temporary residents through study permit caps, work permit restrictions, and tighter enforcement is accelerating departures among people who might otherwise have stayed and transitioned to permanent residency.
IRCC’s latest backlog data shows over 2.15 million applications still in inventory as of March 2026, meaning many temporary residents face long waits for decisions on their future in Canada.
Remote Work and Global Mobility
The normalization of remote and hybrid work since 2020 has expanded the set of countries where Canadian professionals can relocate while maintaining their careers.
Digital nomad visas in Portugal, Spain, and Dubai, combined with lower living costs and favorable tax treatment, have created new pull destinations that did not meaningfully compete with Canada five years ago.
The Economic Cost of Losing 120,000 People Per Year
Each departing resident represents not just a lost taxpayer but also a wasted public investment.
Settlement spending on immigrants averages $20,000 to $50,000 per person in government expenditure on language training, credential recognition, and integration support, according to research cited in the Institute for Canadian Citizenship’s “leaky bucket” analysis.
The emigration of high-income professionals carries an outsized fiscal impact because top earners contribute disproportionately to income tax revenue.
The trend also compounds the IRCC processing backlog problem, because every newcomer who eventually leaves reduces the effective return on the government’s intake pipeline.
For provinces, the consequences are deeply uneven, as our Permanent Resident Absorption Index shows that even Alberta’s strong gains face infrastructure constraints that limit how many people the province can sustainably absorb.
At the national level, sustained net emigration above 60,000 per year means Canada needs to admit roughly 60,000 additional immigrants each year just to stand still on population, before accounting for deaths exceeding births among the aging domestic population.
How Ottawa Is Responding to the Emigration Trend
The 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan stabilizes permanent resident admissions at 380,000 per year, down from the 500,000 peak, with economic-class immigrants comprising 64% of admissions by 2027.
On retention, IRCC has launched consultations on merging Express Entry into a single unified pathway that prioritizes in-Canada work experience and high-wage employment, aiming to reduce the post-arrival departure rate.
The Provincial Nominee Program allocation has been restored to 91,500 for 2026, a 66% rebound from the 55,000 allocation in 2025, giving provinces more tools to select workers who match local labour needs.
Express Entry draws throughout 2026 have consistently prioritized French-language candidates, healthcare workers, and provincial nominees, reflecting a continuous strategic shift toward targeted selection over broad-based intake.
Canada issued over 28,000 PR invitations in April 2026 alone, signalling that the system is actively working to convert temporary residents into permanent ones before they leave.
Programs like the Destination Canada Mobility Forum target francophone workers for settlement outside Quebec, addressing retention gaps in smaller provinces.
Bill C-12 gives IRCC expanded authority to suspend or cancel applications in processing, which could reshape how temporary residents transition to permanent status throughout 2026 and beyond.
The 2027–2029 immigration levels consultations are open through June 30, 2026, and the outcomes will determine whether Ottawa maintains the 380,000 target or adjusts it based on the emigration and population trends documented here.
Canada’s latest emigration numbers are no longer just a statistical footnote; they are a warning sign about affordability, opportunity, and long-term confidence in the country.
As Ottawa reduces immigration targets and temporary residents continue to leave, Canada’s bigger challenge is not only attracting newcomers but also keeping the people who are already here.
The next few quarters will show whether this is a temporary demographic adjustment or the beginning of a deeper shift in how Canadians and permanent residents view their future in Canada.
About This Data
All emigration and non-permanent resident figures come from Statistics Canada Table 17-10-0040-01, and interprovincial migration data comes from Table 17-10-0020-01, both updated June 17, 2026 with data through Q1 2026.
Statistics Canada changed its emigration methodology in Q3 2016, redistributing the net temporary emigration component into the emigrant and returning emigrant categories.
Pre-Q3 2016 and post-Q3 2016 raw emigrant counts are not directly comparable as a result.
Net emigration, calculated as emigrants minus returning emigrants, remains consistent and comparable across the full 74-year time series, as Statistics Canada has confirmed.
Q1 2026 estimates are preliminary and will be updated in September 2026 when more complete administrative data becomes available.
Statistics Canada has noted that recent policy changes, including the March 2026 Quebec worker support measure, could lead to revisions in non-permanent resident counts for 2025 and 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How many people emigrated from Canada in 2025?
Canada recorded 120,640 emigrants in the 2025 calendar year, based on data from Statistics Canada Table 17-10-0040-01 released on June 17, 2026. This is the highest annual emigration total in Canada’s recorded demographic history, surpassing every year in the dataset that extends back to 1952. The quarterly breakdown was 29,816 in Q1, 24,714 in Q2, 41,203 in Q3, and 24,907 in Q4. After accounting for 54,934 returning emigrants, Canada’s net emigration for 2025 was 65,706, which is also an all-time record.
How many people left Canada in Q1 2026?
In Q1 2026 alone, 30,092 Canadian citizens and permanent residents emigrated, while 199,259 non-permanent residents left Canada’s population count. Combined, these two outflow categories represented 229,351 departures during the quarter, before accounting for returning emigrants, new permanent residents, non-permanent resident inflows, births, deaths, and other demographic components. The emigrant count of 30,092 is the highest first-quarter emigration figure recorded in Statistics Canada’s quarterly data.
Is Canada’s population shrinking in 2026?
Yes, Canada’s population declined by 55,025 people from January 1 to April 1, 2026, dropping to an estimated 41,417,056 according to Statistics Canada. This follows a decline of 103,504 in Q4 2025, making it the second consecutive quarter of population loss. The decline is driven by a combination of record emigration, mass departure of non-permanent residents, and reduced permanent immigration under the federal government’s lower intake targets. Alberta recorded the strongest provincial growth in Q1 2026 at 0.2%, while Nova Scotia also posted positive growth at 0.1%.
What is net emigration in Canada and why does it matter?
Net emigration is the number of Canadian citizens and permanent residents who leave Canada to establish residence in another country, minus the number of former emigrants who return. It matters because it shows the actual population loss Canada experiences from international departures, rather than just the gross outflow. In 2025, Canada’s net emigration was 65,706, meaning the country lost roughly 180 residents per day on a net basis to international emigration. This is the highest net emigration figure in Statistics Canada’s records, which use a comparable methodology back to 1972 and are broadly comparable back to 1952. The previous record was 62,803 set in 1997 during the era of elevated departures of technology and finance professionals to the United States.
Which Canadian province loses the most people?
Ontario loses the most people both to international emigration and to interprovincial migration, making it the biggest population loser in Canada. In 2025, Ontario lost a net 14,044 residents to other provinces according to Statistics Canada, on top of its share of the national emigration total. The primary destinations for people leaving Ontario are Alberta, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia, with housing affordability cited as the dominant motivating factor in research and survey data. Alberta has been the top interprovincial gainer for 15 consecutive quarters, adding a net 22,216 residents from other provinces in 2025.
Where do Canadians move when they emigrate?
Statistics Canada does not track destination countries in its quarterly demographic estimates, but other data sources provide insight. Tax filing data and census-linked research consistently show the United States as the primary destination for Canadian emigrants, particularly for professionals in technology, healthcare, finance, and academia. The United Kingdom, Australia, and western European countries including France and Germany, are the next most common destinations. Since 2020, digital nomad visa programs in countries like Portugal, Spain, and the UAE have also emerged as destinations, particularly among younger remote workers.
Why are so many non-permanent residents leaving Canada?
The federal government has deliberately reduced temporary resident admissions from 673,650 in 2025 to 385,000 in 2026, a 43% cut designed to relieve housing and infrastructure pressure. At the same time, approximately 1.9 million temporary residents are expected to see their permits expire across 2026, and many will not qualify for extensions or transitions to permanent residency. Study permit caps, tighter work permit rules, and expanded IRCC enforcement authority under Bill C-12 are all contributing to accelerated departures. The net result is that Canada lost 117,879 non-permanent residents in Q1 2026 alone, one of the largest quarterly declines on record.
Fact Checked: All figures in this article have been verified against Statistics Canada Tables 17-10-0040-01, 17-10-0020-01, and 17-10-0009-01, all released June 17, 2026.
Disclaimer: Immigration and demographic statistics are subject to revision. Q1 2026 estimates are preliminary. Always consult official Statistics Canada sources for the most current figures.
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