Immigration to Canada started off the year strong with the number of new permanent residents up 28 per cent in January compared to the previous month – but slightly softer than the number who arrived during the first month of last year.

The latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reveals there were 47,660 new permanent residents to Canada in January this year, up from 37,240 in December.

Although that’s a strong showing for the first month of this year, the number of monthly arrivals was 6.4 per cent lower than the 50,945 new permanent residents during the comparable month last year.

Projecting out from January’s level of immigration to the rest of the year would result in 571,920 new permanent residents to the country in 2024.

That would be 21.3 per cent more than last year’s record-setting level of 471,550 new permanent residents settling into the country.

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The monthly level of immigrants to Canada in January, if it were to hold throughout the rest of the year, would also result in 17.9 per cent more new permanent residents than the target of 485,000 new permanent residents as set out in Ottawa’s Immigration Levels Plan for 2023 – 2025.

“Following the trajectory of the 2023-2025 plan, Canada aims to welcome 485,000 new permanent residents in 2024, 500,000 in 2025 and plateau at 500,000 in 2026,” notes the IRCC on its website.

“This plan prioritizes economic growth, and supports family reunification while responding to humanitarian crises and recognizing the rapid growth in immigration in recent years.”

The latest immigration levels plan would see a total of 1.485 million immigrants come to Canada over those three years.

Canada’s biggest province by population, Ontario, was the most popular destination for newcomers in January with 21,915 new permanent residents choosing to settle there that month.

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That made the central Canadian province the destination of choice for almost 46 per cent of all immigrants to Canada in January.

Economic programs, including the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), Agri-Food Immigration Pilot (AFIP), Canadian Experience Class (CEC), Caregiver programs, Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP), Federal Skilled Trades (FST) and Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) programs, the Start-Up Visa (SUV) and Self-Employed Persons (SEP) programs, and the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway accounted for a whopping 60.5 per cent of all new permanent residents coming to Ontario in January.   

Those programs helped 13,265 new permanent residents arrive in Ontario that month.

Big Monthly Immigration Gains Were Made In Quebec, Atlantic Canada

Another 5,360 new permanent residents arrived in Ontario through family sponsorships and 2,885 came to that province through Canada’s refugee and protected persons programs in January.

The other provinces and territories attracted the following number of new permanent residents each during January:

• Newfoundland and Labrador – 505
• Prince Edward Island – 540
• Nova Scotia – 1,785
• New Brunswick – 1,695
• Quebec – 4,160
• Manitoba – 2,205
• Saskatchewan – 1,970
• Alberta – 5,440
• British Columbia – 7,250
• Yukon – 140
• Northwest Territories – 50
• Nunavut – 0

Across the country, the biggest gains in monthly immigration growth in January were in Quebec, which saw its level of monthly immigration jump by 60 per cent over the level in December last year, and three of the Atlantic Canadian provinces.

Prince Edward Island saw monthly immigration rise by 35 per cent in January while Nova Scotia saw a gain of 36.3 per cent and New Brunswick of 38.4 per cent.

Ontario’s monthly immigration level was up 44.4 per cent in January compared to December last year.