Canada’s population declined for the first time since the early stages of the pandemic, driven by a significant drop in the number of international students, a result of major policy changes by Ottawa to curb immigration. 

The country’s population declined by 0.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2025 with almost 77,000 fewer people in the country, after almost a year of near-zero population growth. The current population stands at 41,575,585 people, according to new estimates from Statistics Canada released Wednesday. 

This demographic pattern stands in sharp contrast to the pandemic years, when there were numerous quarters of dramatic population growth due to a large inflow of international students and foreign workers. In the third quarter of 2023, for example, Canada saw its highest quarterly population growth rate since 1957, with 420,000 people added to the country over that three-month span. 

The federal government has set a goal of reducing the number of non-permanent residents in Canada to 5 per cent of the total population by the end of 2027. That number now stands at 6.8 per cent of the total population, compared to 7.3 per cent last quarter.