Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada, August 2025
Released: 2025-09-10
1,199,403
August 2025
0.4% 
(12-month change)
1,623,574
August 2025
-4.1% 
(12-month change)
1,786,329
August 2025
-4.5%
(12-month change)
1,944,300
August 2025
-33.9%
(12-month change)
In August 2025, the preliminary number of international arrivals to Canada (returning Canadian residents and non-residents combined) by air and automobile was 6.6 million, down 14.9% from August 2024. This was the seventh consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
Non-resident trips to Canada by air edge up
In August 2025, non-resident arrivals to Canada by air totalled 1.2 million, edging up 0.4% from August 2024 (Chart 1). This total comprised 589,700 arrivals by US residents (-3.6%) and 609,700 arrivals by overseas residents (+4.6%).
According to the daily traffic data, August 1 saw the highest numbers of arrivals for both US residents (28,100) and overseas residents (28,000).
Chart 1
Non-resident trips to Canada by commercial aircraft, August, 2019 to 2025
Infographic 1
Trips to Canada by commercial aircraft, by country of residence, August 2025
Canadian-resident return trips by air decline
In August 2025, Canadian-resident return trips by air from abroad stood at 1.6 million, down 4.1% from the same month one year earlier (Chart 2). Though the number of returning Canadian-resident trips from overseas countries increased 6.6% from August 2024 to 1.2 million in August 2025, the number of returning Canadian-resident trips by air from the United States declined 25.4% to 423,100. Air Canada flights were cancelled or delayed in mid-August due to labour disruptions; Toronto Pearson International and Montréal Trudeau International airports saw the largest declines.
In August, the highest number of returning Canadian-resident arrivals per day was observed on Sunday, August 31 (69,500), during the Labour Day long weekend, and the lowest was seen on Wednesday, August 20 (40,500).
Chart 2
Canadian-resident return trips from abroad by commercial aircraft, August, 2019 to 2025
US-resident trips to Canada by automobile decrease
In August 2025, the number of US-resident trips to Canada by automobile (1.8 million) declined by 4.5% from the same month in 2024 (Chart 3). This was the seventh consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
From Friday, August 29, to Saturday, August 30, 2025, during the Labour Day long weekend in Canada and the United States, an average of 92,000 US-resident arrivals per day was observed. This average was 18.2% higher than the average for the remaining Friday-to-Saturday periods in August.
Chart 3
US-resident trips to Canada by automobile, August, 2019 to 2025
Infographic 2
Trips to Canada by automobile, by country of residence, August 2025
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile decline
In August 2025, the number of Canadian-resident return trips by automobile from the United States totalled 1.9 million, a steep decline (-33.9%) from the same month in 2024 (Chart 4). August 2025 marked the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
The highest number of returning Canadian-resident arrivals was observed on Monday, August 4 (107,700)—a Civic Holiday for all provinces and territories except Quebec and the Yukon. This number was 81.6% higher than the average for the other Mondays in August.
Chart 4
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile, August, 2019 to 2025
Focus on Canada and the United States
In August 2025, the number of arrivals to Canada by US residents by air decreased 3.6% from the same month in 2024, while arrivals by automobile decreased 4.5%.
Meanwhile, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by air fell 25.4% in August 2025 compared with the same month one year earlier. Canadian-resident return trips by automobile dropped 33.9%.
For more data and insights on areas touched by the socio-economic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.
Explore tourism data
To further explore current and historical data in an interactive format, see Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard.
For other tourism-related information, see the Travel and Tourism Statistics portal.
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Note to readers
This release provides an early indicator of travel based on preliminary data on international arrivals to Canada for August 2025 for air and automobile (arrivals by automobile made by overseas residents are not included in this release). Complete counts will be available with the release of "Travel between Canada and other countries" on October 22.
For more information on concepts, definitions, data sources and methods, refer to Frontier Counts.
Data sources
All counts of arrivals by air are from commercial aircraft and are produced exclusively using primary inspection kiosk (PIK) data received from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). PIKs were deployed at Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 1 on June 22, 2021, and, as of July 2021, these arrivals are included in the total counts, which has consequently improved coverage. In 2024, PIKs captured 90.3% of all commercial air arrivals.
Counts of arrivals to the country by automobile through land ports equipped with the CBSA's automated Integrated Primary Inspection Line (IPIL) system represent a subset of US-resident trips and Canadian-resident return trips by automobile. In 2024, IPIL land ports captured 88.9% of all automobile entries.
Next release
The Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada for September 2025 will be released on October 10.
Products
The product "Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard," part of the Data Visualization Products series (71-607-X), is available.
Episode 27 of the Eh Sayers podcast "Canadians just aren't California Dreamin' these days" is available.
The article "Recent changes in Canadian-resident travel to the United States" is also available.
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).
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