Support for Immigration Hits 23-Year Low
New data and polling reveal rising skepticism toward immigration as growth stalls
New data from Statistics Canada on quarterly population growth, combined with recent polling on immigration attitudes from Pollara, offers a fresh look at how Canadians are thinking about immigration.
While this article is free, you can get plenty more when you subscribe, including models, polling deep-dives, full-length articles, and more!
Support Canadian content like this for as little as $5/month!
According to the latest quarterly population estimate, Canada’s population likely grew by just 0.1% over the past few months. That marks the slowest quarterly growth since Q1 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This drop continues a broader downward trend. Between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024, the growth rate had already been gradually declining, just before the federal government announced a reduction in immigration targets.
It’s become increasingly clear that the number of newcomers to Canada is falling, now reaching pandemic-era lows.
Similarly, the number of non-permanent residents living in Canada has been slowly decreasing since Q4 2024, when it hit a four-year high of 3.05 million. In Q1 and Q2 of 2025, that number fell to 3.02 million and then 2.96 million, suggesting the government’s shift in immigration policy is beginning to show in the data.
With immigration top of mind for many Canadians, especially following recent population surges, polling shows a growing skepticism. Compared to two decades ago, Canadians are increasingly critical of immigration levels.
Pollara’s findings show 60% of Canadians now say too many immigrants are coming to Canada, up sharply from 34% in 2002. Meanwhile, only 8% believe there are too few immigrants arriving, down from 14% over the same period.
The share of Canadians who believe immigration levels are “about right” has also dropped significantly, from 45% in 2002 to just 22% as of April 2025.
Many Canadians also believe that recent immigration levels have negatively affected the domestic job market.
Pollara asked whether immigration has had an impact on unemployment among those already living in Canada. They found that 52% of Canadians believe immigration has increased unemployment either “a little” or “a lot,” up from 40% in 2002.
Conversely, the percentage of Canadians who believe immigration has no impact on unemployment has only slightly changed, from 31% in 2002 to 29% today.
Notably, the share who believe immigration has increased employment has dropped significantly, from 24% in 2002 to just 8% in 2025.
Pollara also explored how Canadians view the cultural impact of immigration. The number of people who believe accepting immigrants from different cultures strengthens Canadian culture has fallen sharply, from 58% in 2002 to 33% today.
Interestingly, the share who believe it weakens our culture has only increased slightly, up from 29% to 32%. Meanwhile, the proportion of Canadians who say immigration neither strengthens nor weakens Canadian culture has grown from 10% to 28%.
Public opinion naturally evolves over time, but the sharp rise in immigration in recent years may have played a major role in shifting sentiment. As immigration levels flatten or decline, it remains to be seen whether Canadian attitudes will soften, or whether these more pessimistic views are here to stay.