Key Takeaways
- Canada’s non-permanent resident population fell by 154,614 people from July 2025 to July 2026, reaching 2,779,774.
- Study permit holders had the largest annual decline, falling by an estimated 140,827 people.
- Canada’s population still grew by about 189,000 people, but the annual growth rate slowed to 0.5%.
The Number Has Already Fallen More Than 200,000 From Its Peak
Canada’s non-permanent resident population reached an estimated peak of 2,984,285 on October 1, 2024.
By July 1, 2026, it had fallen to 2,779,774.
That’s roughly 204,500 fewer people than at the peak.
Non-permanent residents now account for approximately 6.7% of Canada’s population, down from about 7.2% at the October 2024 peak.
The latest quarter continued that downward movement, with the number declining by another 18,875 people between April and July.
But there is an important distinction here.
Statistics Canada’s definition of a non-permanent resident includes people with work or study permits, asylum claimants, protected persons and related groups, as well as certain family members.
So this is not simply a count of “international students” or “temporary workers.”
Still, when we look inside the numbers, one group stands out.
International Students Are a Big Part of the Shift
Study permit holders recorded the largest annual decline.
Statistics Canada says their estimated number fell by 140,827 between July 2025 and July 2026.
People holding both work and study permits declined by another 81,163.
That helps explain why the demographic picture now looks so different from only a couple of years ago.
Canada experienced extraordinarily rapid population growth after the pandemic, with international migration playing a major role.
Now that pattern is changing.
Permanent immigration has slowed too.
Canada welcomed 368,224 immigrants during 2025/2026, the fourth consecutive annual decline and the first time since 2021/2022 that the annual figure dropped below 400,000.
During the second quarter of 2026 alone, Canada welcomed 99,148 immigrants, 4.2% fewer than during the same quarter last year.
Ontario Is Feeling the Change
The shift is especially noticeable in some of Canada’s largest provinces.
Ontario had an estimated 1,246,301 non-permanent residents on July 1, but that figure declined 1.5% during the latest quarter.
British Columbia’s number fell 1.4% to 465,514, while Alberta recorded a 0.6% decline to 279,477.
But Canada isn’t moving uniformly in one direction.
New Brunswick recorded a 6.2% quarterly increase in non-permanent residents, while Prince Edward Island rose 3.1% and Nova Scotia increased 2.4%.
That means the national decline can look very different depending on where you live.
Canada Is Still Growing — Just Much More Slowly
This is perhaps the most important part of the story.
Fewer non-permanent residents does not mean Canada’s population has stopped growing.
Canada’s population increased by about 189,000 people between July 2025 and July 2026, reaching nearly 41.8 million.
But the annual growth rate was only 0.5%.
Statistics Canada says that was the smallest July-to-July population increase in absolute numbers since 1944/1945.
The agency says the dramatic changes in Canada’s population growth since 2020 have been almost entirely attributable to changes in international migration.
In other words, Canada hasn’t suddenly stopped growing.
The pace of growth has changed dramatically.
There’s Another Consequence: Canada Is Getting Older Again
Here’s where the story gets even more interesting.
The huge influx of younger international migrants in previous years had an unusual demographic effect: it temporarily lowered or stabilized Canada’s average and median ages.
Now that international migration has slowed, the aging trend is returning.
Canada’s median age increased to 40.9 years on July 1, while the average age reached 42.1 years.
The populations aged 20 to 24 and 25 to 29 recorded the largest declines of any age groups over the year.
Statistics Canada says those decreases were mainly associated with lower numbers of non-permanent residents, particularly international students.
So reducing temporary migration doesn't affect only the headline population number.
It can also change the age structure of the country.
There Is One Big Caveat
These numbers deserve some caution.
Statistics Canada introduced two new adjustments to its methodology for estimating non-permanent residents with this release.
One uses Canada Border Services Agency entry-and-exit information to better estimate how many permit holders leave Canada before their permits expire.
The other improves estimates for people who remain legally in Canada under maintained status while waiting for permit-extension decisions.
Statistics Canada also updated previous non-permanent resident estimates going back to July 2021.
And the July 2026 demographic estimates remain preliminary, meaning they can be revised later.
That makes comparisons with numbers published in older releases tricky.
But using Statistics Canada’s newly updated series, the direction is difficult to miss.
Canada still has nearly 2.8 million non-permanent residents.
Canada is still adding people.
And immigration remains a major component of the country’s demographic picture.
But the idea that Canada’s non-permanent resident population is simply continuing to climb no longer matches the latest Statistics Canada estimates.
For the first time in years, one of the biggest numbers in Canada’s immigration debate is moving decisively in the other direction.