Canada’s population decreased by 76,068 people in the third quarter of 2025 due primarily to a drop in non-permanent residents, which was the largest drop for a single quarter since Statistics Canada began keeping comparable records in 1971.
StatCan said the 0.2 percent decline in the country’s population came as a result of the federal government’s changing immigration policies. Back in 2024, Ottawa announced it would be putting a two-year intake cap on the number of international student permit applications, while reducing the number of temporary residents from 6.5 percent of Canada’s population to 5 percent over the next three years.
In the third quarter of 2025, from July 1 to Oct. 1, the number of non-permanent residents in Canada fell by 5.1 percent compared to the previous quarter. Every province except for Alberta and Nunavut saw overall population decreases….