Canada has recorded one of the sharpest declines in international student enrolment in its history, with foreign student numbers falling by nearly 300,000 over the past two years, according to official immigration data.
Figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) show that between December 2023 and November 2025, the number of international students in the country dropped by 273,570, representing a decline of about 27.5%.
The fall reflects a major policy shift by the Canadian government aimed at reducing the number of temporary residents amid mounting pressure on housing, infrastructure, and public services.
What they are saying
Speaking last month in Halifax, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab disclosed that Canada’s international student population had fallen from more than one million at the start of 2024 to roughly 700,000 as of November 2025, showing the scale of the contraction.
A closer look at IRCC data reveals the pace of the decline. As of December 2023, Canada hosted 673,970 foreign students with valid study permits, alongside another 320,830 individuals holding both study and work permits, bringing the total to nearly 995,000 students.
By November 2025, those figures had dropped to 476,330 and 244,900 respectively, resulting in a combined total of 721,230 international students.
Backstory
The downturn has been largely driven by new immigration policies introduced in early 2024. These include a hard cap on international student enrolment, tighter eligibility for post-graduation work permits, and significantly higher rejection rates for study permit applications. Collectively, the measures have sharply reduced the inflow of new students into the country.
IRCC data shows that student arrivals declined by about 53% between January and September 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. With fewer new entrants, the international student population is expected to continue shrinking through 2026.
Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan reinforces this outlook. The federal government plans to admit just 155,000 new international students in 2026, a 49% reduction from the 2025 target. Annual student arrivals are projected to fall further to 150,000 in both 2027 and 2028, compared with the 293,100 students who entered Canada in 2024.
What you should know
These reductions form part of a broader strategy to lower the proportion of temporary residents, mainly international students and temporary foreign workers, to below 5% of Canada’s total population by the end of 2027.
- Statistics Canada reported that as of October 1, 2025, the number of non-permanent residents stood at 2.85 million, or 6.8% of the population, down from 7.3% in July 2025, driven largely by record-high permit expirations.
- However, progress toward the government’s target has been uneven. While international student numbers have fallen sharply, the population of temporary foreign workers continued to rise until mid-2025 and has only recently begun to ease.
With Canada’s population projected to reach 41.6 million by the end of 2026, the number of non-permanent residents would need to fall to about 2.08 million to meet the government’s 5% threshold highlighting the scale of adjustment still ahead.
