Which provinces immigrants settled in in 2020

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, immigration to Canada last year fell to its lowest level since 1998. As a result, Canada welcomed just over 184,000 new immigrants, well short of the expected 341,000 newcomers.

In terms of immigration, the year 2020 got off to a very strong start. But travel restrictions and other factors related to COVID-19 caused a decline in immigration inflows as early as the beginning of March.

Every province and territory was affected. However, the pandemic did not affect immigrant settlement patterns.

Immigration to Canada's largest province, Ontario, has almost halved to nearly 83,000 in 2020, or 45% of all new immigrants.

British Columbia remained the second largest province by number of newcomers, receiving just under 30,000 immigrants, or 15% of the country's total immigrant population.

Quebec moved into third place, ahead of Alberta, as it welcomed more than 25,000 immigrants in 2020. The share of Newcomers in Quebec increased to 14%, up from 12% the previous year. One reason for this is that Quebec welcomes more immigrant-sponsored families already living in the province, as well as refugees, than most provinces. The number of immigrants in these categories has not fallen as significantly as the skilled worker category, which has declined across the country.

The percentage of Newcampers in Alberta dropped slightly from nearly 13% in 2019 to 12.4% in 2020. Manitoba and Saskatchewan also saw percentage declines. Manitoba's share of new immigrants fell from 5.5% in 2019 to 4.7% in 2020, while Saskatchewan's share fell from 4.6% to 4%.

The four Atlantic provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador) also saw a slight decrease from 5.2% in 2019 to 4.7% in 2020.