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Methods

How emigration is counted.

Canada does not record people as they leave. Every emigration number here is an estimate. This page explains how those estimates are made and their limits.

Does Canada track who leaves the country?
No. There is no exit register. Canada and the United States share entry records at the land border, but people are not required to report that they have moved abroad.
How does Statistics Canada estimate emigrants?
It combines Canada Child Benefit records (families who stop receiving it), tax data, and foreign data such as U.S. records of Canadian-born residents. Estimates for recent quarters are preliminary and revised later.
What are returning emigrants?
Canadian citizens and permanent residents who had emigrated and came back to live in Canada.
What is net temporary emigration?
People who live abroad temporarily but keep their usual residence in Canada, counted as a net change between leaving and returning.
What is net emigration?
Emigrants, minus returning emigrants, plus net temporary emigration. It is the net loss of population through emigration.
How do retention studies decide someone left?
Statistics Canada’s 2024 study counts an immigrant as an emigrant when they stop filing taxes for at least three years in a row (or report leaving), with checks for deaths and people who stop filing while still here. It only counts permanent departures.
Are temporary residents who leave counted as emigrants?
No. Non-permanent residents are tracked separately as inflows and outflows. An outflow can also mean the person became a permanent resident.
Can I reuse these numbers?
Yes. Statistics Canada data is under the Statistics Canada Open Licence. Adapted from Statistics Canada. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product. Download our files on the downloads page.

About this data. Adapted from Statistics Canada. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product. Canada has no register of people who leave, so emigration figures are Statistics Canada estimates built from tax, benefit and foreign data; recent quarters are preliminary and are revised. These pages describe what happened, using official statistics. They do not predict policy, estimate anyone’s chances, or rank communities. See methods and definitions.