This factsheet looks at immigration and citizenship information released by Statistics Canada as part of the 2016 Census.
November 2017
This bar chart shows the share of foreign-born population in Ontario from 1911 to 2016. The share was 20.1% in 1911, went down to a low of 18.5% in 1951, and has been going up since to reach 29.1% in 2016.
This pie chart show the provincial distribution of immigrants to Canada. Among immigrants who arrived before 2011, 53.4% went to Ontario, 17.7% to BC, 13.8% to Quebec, 10.1% to Alberta and 5.0% to the rest of the country. Among recent immigrants, 39.0% went to Ontario, 17.8% to Quebec, 17.1% to Alberta, 14.5% to BC and 11.7% to the rest of Canada.
This pie chart show the country of birth of foreign-born Ontarians by period of immigration. Prior to 2011, 45.7% of immigrants to Ontario came from Asia, 32.5% from Europe, 6.7% from Central/South America, 6.4% from the Caribbean, 5.5% from Africa, 2.8% from North America and 0.3% from Oceania/Other. From 2011 to 2016, 68.8% of immigrants to Ontario came from Asia, 9.6% from Europe, 5.3% from Central/South America, 4.5% from the Caribbean, 8.3% from Africa, 3.1% from North America and 0.4% from Oceania/Other.
This bar chart shows census metropolitan areas with the highest shares of foreign-born population in 2016. These were Toronto (46.1%), Vancouver (40.8%), Calgary (29.4%), Abbotsford-Mission (24.8%), Hamilton (24.1%), Winnipeg (23.9%), Edmonton (23.8%), Montreal (23.4%), Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo (23.0%) and Windsor (22.9%).
This pie chart show the Toronto CMA’s share of foreign-born population in Ontario. Among immigrants before 2011, 69.5% reside in the Toronto CMA, and 30.5% in the rest of Ontario. Among recent immigrants, 75.6% reside in the Toronto CMA and 24.4% in the rest of Ontario.
This bar chart shows the Toronto CMA municipalities with the highest share of foreign-born population in 2011 and 2016. From 2011 to 2016, the share in Markham went from 57.9% to 58.7%, in Richmond Hill from 54.9% to 57.4%, in Mississauga from 52.9% to 53.4%, in Brampton from 50.6% to 52.3%, in Toronto from 48.6% to 47.0%, in Vaughan from 46.4% to 46.3%, and in Ajax from 34.2% to 38.9%.
Contact: Alex Munger (416) 325-0102
Office of Economic Policy
Labour Economics Branch