Canada PR landings in 2022 | Indians continue to dominate!

Surya Rathee
[Published 20 Feb, 2023 | 05:07 AM]
About Author - 5 min read
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“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has unveiled the top 10 source countries of new permanent resident (PR) landings in 2022.”

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Canada Immigration hit new records, as the Great White North landed 437,120 permanent residents (PRs) across the country in 2022. The data published by IRCC represents a nearly 8% increase from the total number of PRs that landed in 2021. India continues to be the leading source, with China in second place again.

This is the second consecutive year that Canada has surpassed its immigration targets - breaking the 2022 intake numbers of 431,645 by 5,000 applicants. 2022 also marked the third year in history (including 1913 and 2021), where Canada welcomed over 400,000 immigrants in a single calendar year.

Canada’s economic programs were once again the priority and key source of immigrants in 2022. Immigrants coming to the country through popular streams including skilled worker programs, business programs, Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs), and TR2PR pathways - accounted for 58.5% of all new PR landings in 2022. 

Monthly breakdown of PR landings in 2022

Canada maintained a monthly average of 23,000 new PR landings throughout the year.

• January - 35,450
• February - 37,360
• March - 40,985
• April - 36,365
• May - 37,985
• June - 43,940
• July - 43,330
• August - 34,135
• September - 44,645
• October - 33,625
• November - 25,970
• December - 23,340

New PR landings in 2022 by immigration class

256,000 new PRs arrived in Canada through Economic Immigration programs in 2022 - 14,150 (+5.8%) more immigrants than the country had targeted as part of its 2022-2024 Immigration Level Plans.

97,165 new permanent residents arrived in Canada under Family-Class Immigration Programs. Falling short of the 105,000 targets set in the immigration levels plans.

Rounding up the main immigration categories, the year 2022 also saw a total of 75,330 "Resettled Refugees and Protected Persons" landings.17.2% of all new permanent residents to Canada were Refugees and Protected Persons. Despite the fact that Canada was able to accept more immigrants this year than the year before (60,115 in 2021), IRCC fell just short of the 76,565 targets established for this immigration class - 17.7% of all Canadian PRs.

IRCC’s data identified the remaining 8,500 new PRs as entering Canada under "All Other Immigration."

Top source countries of Canada PR landings in 2022

The list of the top 10 source countries of new Canadian PRs arriving in 2022 has slightly changed from the previous year - with Afghanistan and Syria replacing Brazil and South Korea.

India continues to lead the list of the top sources for immigration to Canada in 2022, with China coming in second place again. According to each immigrant's country of citizenship, the following 10 countries were Canada's primary source of immigration in 2022. 

1. India (118, 095 immigrants) - 27%
2. China (31,815 immigrants) - 7.2%
3. Afghanistan (23,735 immigrants) - 5.4%
4. Nigeria (22,085 immigrants) - 5.05%
5. Philippines (22,070 immigrants) - 5.04%
6. France (14,145 immigrants) - 3.2%
7. Pakistan (11,585 immigrants) - 2.6%
8. Iran (11,105 immigrants) - 2.5%
9. United States of America (10,400 immigrants) - 2.3%
10. Syria (8,500 immigrants) - 1.9%

Top provinces for PR landings in 2022

Although Ontario continued to be the most popular immigration destination for PR landings in Canada, Quebec surpassed British Columbia as their second most preferred initial settlement destination.

While over 49% of new PRs settled across the Ontario province in 2021, just 42.2% of them chose the province as their initial location in 2022. This may be a result of Canada's efforts to spread the advantages of immigration more widely around the country - which explains why IRCC has started conducting more PNP-specific draws than Express Entry draws.

Québec, which welcomed 68,685 immigrants in 2022, came in second. This number represents around 15.7% of all PR landings, an increase of more than 12% in 2021.

According to the Canada Immigration Level Plans for 2023-2025, IRCC has forecasted that in 2023, the number of PR landings in Canada will rise to approximately 465,000. Considering the quick process and minimal requirements to apply for Canada PR – now is the best time to immigrate to Canada.