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Statistics Canada’s latest population estimate indicates that the country’s population decreased by 103,504 people from Oct. 1, 2025, to Jan. 1, 2026, marking the second consecutive quarter where Canada has seen a population decline.
This is also the first back-to-back drop on record.
The quarter-year report published on Wednesday states that the country’s population remains “well below the levels observed in the fourth quarters of 2023 and 2024.”
As of Jan. 1, 2026, Canada’s population sat at 41,472,081.
The first quarter of 2026 started on Jan. 1, 2026, and closes on April 1, 2026.
Fewer non-permanent residents is ‘leading factor’
A September 2025 economic and social report by Statistics Canada stated that “the government aims to lower the proportion of temporary residents in the national population to five per cent by the end of 2026 to ease the strain on infrastructure and support more sustainable population growth.”
After the figure reached 3,149,131 on Oct. 1, 2024, the agency states that “the number of non-permanent residents living in Canada steadily decreased to 2,676,441 on January 1, 2026.”
The agency attributed the lower numbers to “decreases among people holding a study permit only, a work permit only, or both a work and study permit.”
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There were 7,040 new-student arrivals, a 37 per cent decrease from January 2025, and 11,850 new worker arrivals, a 20 per cent decrease compared with January 2025, according to a Statistics Canada immigration report published in January 2026.
In total, there are 460,695 people with a study permit, 1,481,590 people with a work permit and 234,770 people with both a study and a work permit in Canada as of Jan. 31, 2026.
From Oct. 1, 2025, to Jan. 1, 2026, the number of non-permanent residents in Canada decreased by 171,296, a drop that all Canadian provinces and Yukon experienced.
Number of permanent residents also dropping
The September 2025 report also states that the federal government is “aiming to select more than 40 per cent of permanent residents annually from among temporary residents.”
As a result, Canada welcomed 83,168 permanent immigrants in the fourth quarter of 2025, which represented a decline of 19.6 per cent compared with the number of permanent immigrants welcomed in the same quarter of 2024 (103,438).
Statistics Canada also said in its January 2026 report that more than 14,000 former temporary residents became permanent residents that month.
This accounted for about 60 per cent of new permanent residents during that time.
Ontario remained the number one destination for immigrants, welcoming 42.3 per cent (35,159) of all new immigrants to Canada in the fourth quarter of 2025. Quebec was the only province welcoming more new immigrants in the fourth quarter of 2025 (13,361) than in the same quarter of 2024 (12,496).
Not the first time Canada has seen slow population growth
At the start of 2025, Canada’s population growth started showing a notable decrease, recording the largest population drop in the third quarter of the year.
Statistics Canada said in December 2025 that the number of non-permanent residents in Canada decreased by 176,479 over the same period, a nearly six per cent drop — the largest since those records started in 1971.
However, the agency told Global News in an emailed statement that “the overall population decrease in 2025 should be interpreted with caution.”
“The recent increases in the number of extensions of work and study permits could lead to larger than usual updates in the coming months.”
The country is aiming for the population to spike to 76 million people in the next 50 years.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
