Canadian politicians chased immigration so much they completely missed the surge of citizens leaving. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows emigration, the act of a citizen or permanent resident leaving for good, accelerated in Q4 2024. The move was part of a recent trend that saw the highest volume of Canadians fleeing the country since 1967.
Emigration is the opposite of immigration—the act of a permanent resident or citizen relocating outside of the country. People leave for a lot of reasons such as retirement, marriage, or career. It’s always going to be a component of a country’s population, so it’s not a big concern until it starts to climb at a fairly aggressive pace.
Canadian Emigration Ends Year With A 9-Year High For Q4
Canadians left the country for good at a much faster pace than usual. There were 24,533 emigrants in Q4 2024, up 3.0% compared to last year. It was the biggest fourth quarter since 2016, and 30% higher than 2019. This definitely escalated faster than the growth of the general population.
Canadians Left In The Highest Volume Since 1967
The annual volume of Canadian emigrants.
Source: Statistics Canada; Better Dwelling.
The quarter capped a year of surging emigration. Annual emigration hit 106,134 people in 2024, up 3.0% from the year before. Last year was also 17.3% higher than 2019, and marked the biggest year for exits going back to at least 1967—more than two generations ago.
It’s important to note this data is understated. Canada’s emigration numbers are dependent on people notifying the country of their permanent departure. If they don’t, the assumption is the person went on vacation—departures generally weren’t tracked until this year. This data issue also resulted in the country overestimating its population growth significantly for at least 40 years. Whoops.
Canada’s great if you’re established. Your makes more than you do and the government constantly gives you incentives.
If you’re just trying to get established, can you really blame these kids? I bought my first house right after university. They have to wait 10+ years if they’re a top earning professional to do the same. America might not be the place people want to move to these days, but they’ll be way ahead of their peers if they figure out there’s a whole world beyond just the US that’s safer, and values talent more.
It feels like Canada isn’t really a country much less a society, it’s now just a massive Boomer protectionist racket.
Nearly every policy is designed to vacuum up more money from the wallets of young workers earning the princely sum of $90k (what Liberals laughably consider “rich”) to shower on Boomers drunk on luxury who purchased their now-$4 million homes for a can of soup in 1979.
The Canada we knew is dead. Now its a transient hub for people to stop by as they find out most people here don’t want immigrants, they want rent checks and cheap labor.
You got it.
Canada is still much better than America.
Yes, we only have to be better than 1 country apparently. The rest of the world is just leaving us behind.
Sure, I think you’ll change your mind when we’re all eating out of garbage cans and playing hunger games survival shows for shelter.
If you’re a young middle-class worker without rich parents, Canada offers the WORST deal in the developed world. No question. Maybe the UK is nearly as bad (UK Boomers despise their youth almost as much as the Canadian Boomers despise theirs) but at least in the UK, young workers get more paid vacation time for their efforts.
Young Canadian workers will find a vastly better quality of life and a better ratio of rewards to work abroad.
By what metric?
It’s hostile towards business, has terrible zoning which has created bland and unwalkable cities, there’s the weather, etc. etc.. The list of undesirables is mighty long, and the worst part is that it will never change. Just look at recent polling for yet another example of how apathetic Canadians are
So after 9y of dismal negligent mismanagement of canada we are now a countru withput a middle class. 50% of us cant afford basic necessities. The standard of living has collapsed lije the great depression, all while a tiny minority stole as mucg as they could.
Should we be planning to leave? Well that depends on what happens in tge next election. If the current govt is not held accountable, we can expect more of the same nonsense.
People need to understand that housing is not a productive investment. Ni one is paying us in yuan, yen, usd or rand.to build ir renovate a house in toronto. Housing returning 100% more than actual businesses that producegoods that can be exported for hard currwncy is absurd.
In alberta we have seen waves of people come and go trying to beat the housing prices, only to raise prices locslly. Most of them leave. Ehat would make more sense is peoe investing in oil, fertilizer, mining, agriculture companies to improve everyones std of living.
24k is drop in the bucket, should be more a couple mill, then canadians stand a chance in buying a home and getting a decent job.
Creates more room for international students and temporary foreign workers!!!
We left Vancouver 10 years ago to raise 3 kids in the Bellevue / Redmond area (near Seattle) and it’s been amazing. We tripled our living space and salary and taxes dropped by half. But we still love visiting Canada and going to whistler!
Have you noticed how the MSM is trying to convince Carney is more or less our saviour and his already elected?…
Even Garth Turner is at it. his blog has gone from financial advice to him name calling anyone who doesn’t agree with him and won’t vote lib. Amazing
Rene Levesque was right: “Canada is over governed and ill governed.”
1965. La plus ca change…