Canada has recorded one of its steepest declines in international student enrolment, with the foreign student population shrinking by nearly 300,000 over the past two years, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Data from IRCC shows that between December 2023 and November 2025, the number of international students fell by 27.5%—from close to one million to about 721,000. The sharp drop follows a series of government measures introduced in early 2024 to rein in the number of temporary residents.
These policies include caps on international student admissions, tighter post-graduation work permit rules, and higher rejection rates for study permit applications. As a result, student arrivals plunged by 53% between January and September 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier, with further declines expected.
Under Canada’s 2026 Immigration Levels Plan, the government aims to admit just 155,000 new international students, a significant reduction from the 293,100 arrivals recorded in 2024. The cuts form part of a broader strategy to bring the share of temporary residents—including international students and foreign workers—below 5% of the total population by 2027.
Statistics Canada reported that non-permanent residents stood at 2.85 million in October 2025, accounting for 6.8% of the population. While international student numbers have fallen rapidly, the number of temporary foreign workers has only recently begun to decline, suggesting further adjustments are still underway as the policy changes take full effect.
