As Canada reaches record-breaking levels of immigration, new data from Statistics Canada reveals that almost half of the recent immigrants are forgoing Canadian citizenship. Over the past two decades, Statistics Canada’s figures demonstrate a remarkable drop-off in permanent residents electing to take on Canadian citizenship – by as much as 40%. The Institute for Canadian Citizenship has also cited these numbers to support the findings. In 2021, 45.7% of permanent residents who had been in Canada for less than ten years obtained citizenship – a notable drop from the 60 and 75.1 percent rates observed in 2016 and 2001.
The number of permanent residents becoming Canadian citizens has plummeted since 2001
