Study: The Canadian diaspora: Estimating the number of Canadian citizens who live abroad, 2016
Archived Content
Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.
Released: 2022-04-13
Many Canadian citizens live abroad. They contribute to showcasing Canada and Canadian values around the world in a variety of fields, such as culture, sports and science.
These Canadian citizens living abroad can also benefit from services offered by Canada, such as consular services or repatriation in the event of difficult or unexpected situations, or to simply want to maintain ties with the country.
This population of interest is often called the "Canadian diaspora."
For the first time, in the study entitled "The Canadian diaspora: Estimating the number of Canadian citizens who live abroad," Statistics Canada is proposing an estimate of the number of Canadian citizens living abroad. Given the challenges associated with this endeavour, the study provides a range of possible estimates.
Because a permanent population register does not exist, indirect sources must be used to estimate this population. This exercise used methods of demographic analysis and drew on many Canadian and international data sources such as censuses, demographic estimates, and statistics from the United Nations. A number of estimation scenarios were developed, as assumptions were needed for such things as the fertility of Canadian women living abroad and the transmission of Canadian citizenship from parents to children born and living abroad.
Approximately 4 million Canadians citizens live abroad
The "medium number" scenario suggests that roughly 4 million Canadian citizens were living abroad on July 1, 2016. According to this scenario, the proportion of Canadian citizens living outside Canada would amount to around 11% or one Canadian citizen out of nine. However, based on the "low number" and "high number" scenarios, this number could vary from 2,900,000 to 5,500,000. These scenarios differ in terms of the assumptions made about the different demographic events experienced by members of the diaspora (such as the transmission of citizenship).
The estimates published today are broken down by age group, sex and how Canadian citizenship was acquired. They are not available by country of residence.
The number of men and women in the diaspora appears to be fairly similar. The population of citizens living abroad may be slightly older than the population living in Canada (average age of 46.2 years compared with 40.8 years).
Roughly half of Canadian citizens living abroad are citizens by descent, meaning that they were born abroad to parents who are Canadian citizens and from whom they acquired citizenship. Canadian citizens by birth—those born on Canadian soil—likely make up about one-third of the diaspora, while naturalized citizens represent around 15%.
Note to readers
The findings of the study published today update the estimates produced by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada in 2009, but use different methods.
In general, the estimates in this study show a high level of consistency with other data sources on the number of Canadian citizens living abroad, some of which are incomplete and only for one country. These sources include statistics from the United Nations on people born in Canada who live elsewhere in the world and estimates from the American Community Survey on the age structure of people born in Canada who live in the United States.
Despite this level of consistency, the results of this study must be interpreted with caution since they include a certain degree of uncertainty. These estimates are modelled due to a lack of data that directly measures this specific population.
A detailed technical report that explains the methodology used and its limitations is available with this release.
Products
The article "The Canadian diaspora: Estimating the number of Canadian citizens who live abroad" is now available as part of the Demographic Documents series (91F0015).
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
- Date modified: