After the pandemic-related downturn of 2020, Canada has experienced an unprecedented surge in immigration, making the second consecutive year of record-breaking immigration. Here we will learn about the Canada’s top 10 immigration source countries in 2022.
Canada’s immigration targets in 2022 – An overview
437,120 PRs were received by Canada from all over the world in 2022. As reported by IRCC, this estimate represents an increase of approximately 8% over 2021.
Canada, in accordance with its Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024, has also exceeded the 2022 immigration target number (431,645) for the second consecutive year, exceeding it by more than 5,000. Moreover, this nation welcomed more than 400,000 immigrants last year for only the third time in its history, following 1913 and 2021.
Travel restrictions imposed by COVID-19 resulted in just 184,000 new PRs coming to Canada in 2020.
Canada’s primary immigration source in 2022 is once again economic immigration. Overall, 58.5% of all new PRs in Canada in 2018 came through economic immigration, including worker programs, business programs, Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs), and pathways from temporary residence to permanent residence.
Monthly distribution of Canadian permanent resident arrivals in 2022
Every month of 2022, at least 23,000 new PRs moved to Canada.
Listed below are the exact numbers of new Canadian PRs who entered Canada each month last year:
- 35,450 new immigrants in January.
- 37,360 new immigrants in February.
- 40,985 new immigrants in March.
- 36,365 new people arrived in April.
- 37,985 people arrived in May.
- 43,940 people in June.
- 43,330 new immigrants in July.
- 34,135 new immigrants in August.
- 44,645 new immigrants in September.
- 33,625 new immigrants in October.
- 25,970 people arrived in November.
- 23,340 people arrived in December.
New arrivals of permanent residents to Canada by immigration category in 2022
During 2022, economic-class immigration policies led to 256,000 additional PRs entering the country. In mid-February last year, the nation unveiled the Immigration Levels Strategy for 2022-2024, which aimed to increase economic immigration by 14.150.
97,165 foreign nationals entered the country as permanent residents under the family class immigration programs in 2022. The Immigration Levels Strategy for the years 2022-2044 calls for 105,000 permanent residents by this year, but this statistic represents just 22.2% of all newly arrived Canadians.
In 2022, IRCC aimed for this group to constitute roughly 24% of all new permanent residents in Canada. As part of major Canadian immigration classes, a total of 75,330 refugees and protected persons successfully settled in the country. This accounted for 17.2% of all PRs, though it was lower than the 76,565-person goal set by IRCC (17.7% of all PRs). Compared to the previous year (60,115 in 2021), this was a higher number of arrivals.
Roughly 8,500 additional Permanent Residents were designated by IRCC under the “All Other Immigration” category.
Canada’s top 10 immigration source countries in 2022 included India, Afghanistan, and China
The leading countries of origin for new Canadian permanent residents in 2022 have undergone slight changes from the previous year. Brazil and South Korea are no longer in the top 10, while Afghanistan and Syria have taken their place. India remains the primary source of immigration to Canada this year, followed by China, which maintains its position from a year ago. However, there has been a decrease in the percentage of immigrants from these two countries, with 32% and 8% last year, respectively, as compared to the current year.
Canada’s main immigration sources in 2022 were the following 10 nations based on citizenship. In addition to the number of immigrants from each nation, the percentage of that nation’s total PRs that came from that nation will also be listed.
The top 10 immigration source countries for Canada’s new Permanent Residents in 2022, along with the number of immigrants and their percentage of the total PR count, are as follows:
- India: 118,095 immigrants, accounting for 27%.
- China: 31,815 immigrants, accounting for 7.2%.
- Afghanistan: 23,735 immigrants, accounting for 5.4%.
- Nigeria: 22,085 immigrants, accounting for 5.05%.
- Philippines: 22,070 immigrants, accounting for 5.04%.
- France: 14,145 immigrants, accounting for 3.2%.
- Pakistan: 11,585 immigrants, accounting for 2.6%.
- Iran: 11,105 immigrants, accounting for 2.5%.
- United States of America: 10,400 immigrants, accounting for 2.3%.
- Syria: 8,500 immigrants, accounting for 1.9%.
Canada’s top immigration destination in 2022 for PR
Despite Ontario continuing to be the top choice for immigrants settling in Canada, Quebec overtook British Columbia to become the second most popular place to settle. 42.2% of the new permanent residents chose Ontario as their first destination, down from nearly 49% the previous year. As the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) slowly gains a greater share of the immigration market than Express Entry, this trend may be explained by Canada’s objective to extend immigration benefits more evenly across the country.
68,685 immigrants arrived in Québec in 2022, second only to the United States. A bit more than 12% of all incoming immigrants in 2021 represented about 15.7% of all incoming immigrants in 2022.
The number of immigrants to Canada in British Columbia decreased by around three percent from the previous year in 2022, representing 14%. A total of 49,460 immigrants entered Alberta throughout the course of 2022, representing 11.3% of all landed immigrants in that year.
For each province and territory in Canada, the table below details the number and percentage of landed PRs in 2022 (along with the percent change), and how those numbers have changed from 2021 to 2022.
| Province/Territory | 2022 PRs | % of all PRs | % change from 2021 |
| New Brunswick | 10,205 | 2.3% | +1% |
| Prince Edward Island | 2,665 | 0.6% | – |
| Quebec | 68,685 | 15.7% | +3.4% |
| Nova Scotia | 12,650 | 2.8% | +0.6% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 3,490 | 0.7% | +0.2% |
| Saskatchewan | 21,635 | 4.9% | +2.2% |
| Alberta | 49,460 | 11.3% | +1.4% |
| British Columbia | 61,215 | 14% | -3.1% |
| Manitoba | 21,645 | 4.9% | +0.8% |
| Province not stated | 20 | 0.0% | -0.1% |
| Northwest Territories | 235 | 0.0% | -0.1% |
| Ontario | 184,725 | 42.2% | -6.7% |
| Yukon | 455 | 0.1% | – |
| Nunavut | 45 | 0.0% | – |
| Canada total | 437,120 | 100% | – |
