Canada released its most recent immigration targets for 2023 to 2025 on November 1, 2022.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) publishes an immigration targets plan for how many permanent residents it aims to admit every year – it calls this the Immigration Levels Plan.
On November 1st, 2022, IRCC published its 2023-2025 Immigration Levels Plan which set out its immigration targets for new permanent residents.
The immigration targets published in this latest plan are higher than previously set for 2023 and 2024. Canada plans to admit:
- 465,000 new Permanent Residents in 2023. Up from 447,055 in the previous Immigration Levels Plan.
- 485,000 new Permanent Residents in 2024. Up from 451,000 in the last plan.
- 500,000 new Permanent Residents in 2025. (2025 was not in the previous plan which covered years 2022-2024.)
Keep in mind those headline figures include more than just Express Entry or economic class (i.e. Federal Skilled Worker, Canadian Experience Class, Provincial Nominee Program and Federal Skilled Trades.) immigration however.
The range IRCC sets for just economic class immigration is:
If you want to see these headline figures broken down into the constituent immigration programs then the table below will give you the detail.
Scroll horizontally to see all the columns.
| Immigrant Category | 2023: Target | Low Range | High Range | 2024: Target | Low Range | High Range | 2025: Target | Low Range | High Range | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Planned Permanent Resident Admissions | 465000 | 410000 | 505000 | 485000 | 430000 | 542500 | 500000 | 442500 | 550000 | |
| Economic | Federal High Skilled | 82880 | 67750 | 88000 | 109020 | 89500 | 115750 | 114000 | 93500 | 121000 |
| Federal Economic Public Policies | 25000 | 19500 | 32750 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Federal Business | 3500 | 2350 | 4000 | 5000 | 3500 | 7000 | 6000 | 4000 | 8000 | |
| Economic Pilots: Caregivers; Agri-Food Pilot; Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot; Economic Mobility Pathways Project | 8500 | 4650 | 10800 | 12125 | 6750 | 16125 | 14750 | 9000 | 19750 | |
| Atlantic Immigration Program | 8500 | 3000 | 8800 | 11500 | 6000 | 12500 | 14500 | 8500 | 16500 | |
| Provincial Nominee Program | 105500 | 91000 | 110000 | 110000 | 105500 | 120000 | 117500 | 112000 | 129250 | |
| Quebec Skilled Workers and Business | See the Quebec immigration plan | To be determined | To be determined | |||||||
| Total Economic | 266210 | 233000 | 277250 | 281135 | 250000 | 305000 | 301250 | 265000 | 326000 | |
| Family | Spouses, Partners and Children | 78000 | 72000 | 84000 | 80000 | 75000 | 86000 | 82000 | 77000 | 88000 |
| Parents and Grandparents | 28500 | 25000 | 38000 | 34000 | 29000 | 45000 | 36000 | 30750 | 48000 | |
| Total Family | 106500 | 100000 | 118000 | 114000 | 105000 | 130000 | 118000 | 107000 | 135000 | |
| Refugees and Protected Persons | Protected Persons in Canada and Dependents Abroad | 25000 | 22000 | 35000 | 27000 | 24000 | 38000 | 29000 | 26000 | 35000 |
| Resettled Refugees - Government-Assisted | 23550 | 18500 | 30000 | 21115 | 16750 | 26000 | 15250 | 12000 | 17000 | |
| Resettled Refugees - Privately Sponsored | 27505 | 20000 | 29000 | 27750 | 22000 | 29500 | 28250 | 23000 | 30000 | |
| Resettled Refugees - Blended Visa Office-Referred | 250 | - | 400 | 250 | - | 400 | 250 | - | 400 | |
| Total Refugees & Protected Persons | 76305 | 66000 | 93000 | 76115 | 66000 | 93000 | 72750 | 64000 | 80000 | |
| Humanitarian and Other | Total Humanitarian & Compassionate and Other | 15985 | 11000 | 16750 | 13750 | 9000 | 14500 | 8000 | 6500 | 9000 |
Data source: IRCC.
For Express Entry immigration targets you want to look at Provincial Nominee Program and “Federal High Skilled” – which includes Federal Skilled Workers (FSW), Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and Federal Skilled Trades (FST) immigration programs.
The immigration target numbers for Express Entry immigration have risen broadly in line with the overall immigration number rise. With around 45% of total new permanent residents coming from either PNP, FSW, CEC or FST.
The Federal Economic Public Policies line in the table above is a new category of immigration IRCC put in place in 2021 to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on immigration: namely the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway.
As you can see in the table, IRCC will have admitted all the people accepted under this program by the end of 2023.
PNP immigration the largest proportion
Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) immigration is set to be the largest single group of immigration in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The proportion of immigration coming from PNP as factor of total economic immigration is up somewhat compared to previous plans. The new plan has PNP immigration at around 39% of total economic immigration, up from around 34% in previous years.
I hope you’ve found this article useful.
Please do let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or anything you think I’ve missed.