Travel between Canada and other countries, September 2025
Released: 2025-11-20
2,876,327
September 2025
-0.2% 
(12-month change)
3,256,582
September 2025
-22.7%
(12-month change)
2,481,024
September 2025
2.3% 
(monthly change)
3,478,669
September 2025
1.8%
(monthly change)
Highlights
In September, the number of Canadian-resident return trips from the United States was down 30.9% year over year, while the number of trips to Canada by US residents decreased 2.6%. September marked the end of a three-month summer streak (June to August 2025), where more US residents travelled to Canada than Canadian residents travelled to the United States.
Meanwhile, in September 2025, the number of trips to Canada by overseas residents was up 7.4% from September 2024, and the number of Canadian-resident return trips from overseas increased 5.7%.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the number of Canadian-resident return trips from abroad was up 1.8% in September 2025. US-resident arrivals increased 3.5%, while overseas-resident arrivals decreased 1.4%.
Chart 1
Canadian residents returning to Canada from the United States and US residents visiting Canada, January 2019 to September 2025
Trips to Canada by US residents continue to decrease
In September, US-resident trips to Canada (2.1 million) declined year over year for an eighth consecutive month, down 2.6% from the same month in 2024.
Arrivals by automobile (1.2 million) were down 4.2% year over year in September 2025. Over half (52.9%) of these arrivals were same-day trips. Meanwhile, air arrivals (532,500) increased 1.6% year over year. The number of US residents who disembarked in Canada from cruise ships was 284,400 in September, down 3.5% from the same month in 2024.
Chart 2
Year-over-year change in the number of US visitors entering Canada, by province or territory of arrival, September 2025
Trips to Canada by overseas residents continue to increase
In September, 734,200 overseas residents arrived in Canada, up 7.4% from the same month in 2024. The majority (78.2%) of overseas-resident arrivals were by air in September 2025.
An increase in arrivals from Europe (+5.8%) and Asia (+14.6%)—the top two source markets for overseas visitors to Canada—was the primary contributor to the year-over-year growth in overseas-resident arrivals in September.
The top three countries of residence for overseas visitors were the United Kingdom (110,800), France (73,200) and Germany (59,800), accounting for 33.2% of all overseas arrivals in Canada in September.
Chart 3
Overseas visitors entering Canada, by continent of residence, January 2019 to September 2025
Trips abroad by Canadian residents continue to decrease
Canadian residents returned from 3.3 million trips abroad in September, down 22.7% compared with September 2024.
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile declined 33.8% to 1.6 million in September 2025. Of these trips, 65.3% were same-day trips.
In September, the number of Canadian-resident return trips by air from the United States (567,100) decreased 19.3% compared with the same month a year earlier. Meanwhile, Canadian-resident return trips by air from overseas countries (997,400) increased 6.1% compared with September 2024.
Chart 4
Canadian residents returning to Canada from trips abroad, September 2024 to September 2025
Seasonally adjusted arrivals
Tourism is influenced by seasonal effects (e.g., actual seasons and holidays such as Canada Day and Thanksgiving) and by calendar effects (e.g., number of weekends in a month). All statistics in this section are based on seasonally adjusted data (for more information, see the Note to readers).
Trips to Canada by US residents increase
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the overall number of arrivals in Canada by US residents was up 3.5% in September 2025. Increases in arrivals by automobile (+4.8%) and by air (+3.0%) were the main contributors to the overall monthly increase.
Trips to Canada by overseas residents decrease
In September, the number of overseas-resident arrivals in Canada decreased 1.4% on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, led by residents of the Americas (excluding the United States) (-6.9%) and Oceania (-3.2%). By volume, decreases in the number of visitors from Mexico (-9.7%) and the United Kingdom (-2.6%) drove the overall monthly decrease.
Chart 5
Overseas visitors entering Canada, by continent of residence, January 2019 to September 2025, seasonally adjusted data
Canadian-resident return trips from abroad increase
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the number of Canadian-resident return trips from abroad increased 1.8% in September, driven by an increase in Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile (+2.2%) and from overseas by air (+3.7%).
Chart 6
Non-resident visitors entering Canada and Canadian residents returning to Canada, January 2019 to September 2025
Enhancements—Integrated Primary Inspection Line – Air integration
Starting with the release of the July 2025 reference month for "Travel between Canada and other countries" on September 23, Statistics Canada integrated information about travellers processed through the Canada Border Services Agency's Integrated Primary Inspection Line – Air (IPIL Air) system into the Frontier Counts. The unadjusted data series from January to June 2025 were also updated during the July release.
This new data source improves the accuracy of Frontier Counts by addressing existing data gaps at some ports of entry. IPIL Air data also replace information from E311 declaration forms at other ports of entry.
Users are advised to exercise caution when comparing 2025 reference months and onwards with previous years. For more information on concepts, definitions, data sources and methods, refer to Frontier Counts.
Focus on Canada and the United States
In September 2025, Canadian residents returned from 2.3 million trips to the United States, representing a 30.9% decrease from the same month in 2024 and accounting for 69.3% of all trips abroad taken by Canadian residents during the month.
Meanwhile, US residents took 2.1 million trips to Canada in September 2025, down 2.6% from the same month in 2024 and representing 74.5% of all non-resident trips to Canada in September 2025.
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 more current estimates of international arrivals to Canada, please see the release, "Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada."
For other tourism-related information, see the Travel and Tourism Statistics portal.
Note to readers
Unless otherwise specified, this release uses unadjusted (raw) data.
Seasonal adjustment
Tourism is influenced by seasonal effects (e.g., holidays such as Canada Day and Thanksgiving) and calendar effects (e.g., number of weekends in a month). Seasonally adjusted data are data that have been modified to eliminate the effect of seasonal and calendar influences to allow for more meaningful comparisons of economic conditions from period to period. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
Revisions
Seasonally adjusted data for June to August 2025 have been revised. No revisions were made to the unadjusted data.
Please be advised that incomplete Primary Inspection Kiosk and Integrated Primary Inspection Line Highway data were received from the Canada Border Services Agency for September 28 and 29, 2025. As a result, data imputation has been applied to approximate the full traveller volume for these dates.
Canada Post service disruptions
Statistics Canada will monitor the impacts of Canada Post service disruptions on future releases.
Next release
"Travel between Canada and other countries" for October will be released on December 22.
Products
The product "Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard," part of the Data Visualization Products series (71-607-X), is available.
The article "Recent changes in Canadian-resident travel to the United States" is available.
Episode 27 of the Eh Sayers podcast, "Canadians just aren't California Dreamin' these days," is available.
The infographic "Tourism activity, 2024" 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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