Canada sees population drop between July and October 2025. Here's why
The recent decline in Canada's population was attributed to a drop in the number of international students studying in Canada.
Canada's population declined by 0.2 percent over the third quarter - from July 1 to October 1, 2025 – as per the data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday. As of October 1, 2025, the county's population stand at 41,575,585 - down from 41.65 million on July 1.
Ontario (-0.4%) and British Columbia (-0.3%) saw the largest population decrease in the third quarter of 2025, followed by Manitoba and the Northwest Territories (both -0.2%).
Every province and territory except Alberta and Nunavut (both +0.2%) saw population decreases, according to preliminary estimates.
It was the only other quarterly decline on record that came in 2020, and was attributed to Covid-19 border restrictions. “While the growth in Alberta remained positive, it was the lowest for this province since the second quarter of 2021 (+0.1%), when border restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 were still in place,” the official statement read.
Why did Canada's population decline?
The recent decline was attributed to a drop in the number of international students studying in Canada after Ottawa pledged to tamp down on the number of study permits issued.
As per the official release, the preliminary estimates revealed that the population decrease in Canada was mainly due to a drop in non-permanent residents.
"This trend is the result of changing government policies concerning international migration," it said.
In recent years, Canada reformed the International Student Program – tightening eligibility requirements for temporary foreign workers, enforcing employer compliance more strictly, and making labour market impact assessments more rigorous to mitigate fraud among other measures.
On September 18, 2024, Canada announced additional measures to manage the volume of temporary resident arrivals. These measures included:
1. Announcing a further reduction in the intake cap on international student study permits for 2025 based on a 10% reduction from the 2024 target of 485,000 new study permits issued, and then stabilising the intake cap for 2026 such that the number of study permits issued remains the same as 2025.
2. Updating the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program to better align with immigration goals and labour market needs limiting work permit eligibility, later this year, to spouses of master’s degree students to only those whose program is at least 16 months in duration
3. Limiting work permit eligibility later this year to spouses of foreign workers in management or professional occupations or in sectors with labour shortages—under Canada’s work permit programs (TFWP and IMP).