Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada, December 2025
Released: 2026-01-12
752,744
December 2025
-1.1% 
(12-month change)
1,613,106
December 2025
-0.1%
(12-month change)
981,832
December 2025
-9.0%
(12-month change)
1,281,031
December 2025
-30.7%
(12-month change)
In December, the preliminary number of international arrivals to Canada (returning Canadian residents and non-residents combined) by air and automobile was 4.6 million, down 12.7% from December 2024. This was the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
Non-resident trips to Canada by air decrease
In December, non-resident arrivals to Canada by air totalled 752,700, down 1.1% from December 2024 (Chart 1). This decrease was driven by a decline in US-resident arrivals (-8.9%) and was partially offset by an increase in overseas-resident arrivals (+6.6%).
According to daily traffic data, Saturday, December 20 recorded the highest numbers of daily arrivals by both US residents (18,000) and overseas residents (25,800). This monthly peak was 97.6% higher than the average number of non-resident arrivals for the remaining Saturdays in the month. It preceded Christmas Day on Thursday, December 25.
Chart 1
Non-resident trips to Canada by commercial aircraft, December, 2019 to 2025
Infographic 1
Trips to Canada by commercial aircraft, by geography of residence, December 2025
Canadian-resident return trips by air edge down
Canadian-resident return trips by air from abroad stood at 1.6 million in December, down slightly by 0.1% from the same month one year earlier (Chart 2). Although the number of return trips from overseas countries by air increased by 10.4% to 1.1 million in December, the number of return trips by air from the United States declined 18.7% to 470,700.
From December 30 to 31, at the end of the holiday season, a daily average of 71,500 returning Canadian-resident arrivals was observed. This average was 59.2% higher than the average of the remaining Tuesday-to-Wednesday periods in the month. The lowest number of arrivals was observed on Friday, December 19 (35,200).
Chart 2
Canadian-resident return trips from abroad by commercial aircraft, December, 2019 to 2025
US-resident trips to Canada by automobile decrease
In December, the number of US-resident trips to Canada by automobile (981,800) decreased 9.0% from the same month in 2024 (Chart 3). This was the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
From Friday, December 26, to Saturday, December 27, 2025, an average of 67,300 US-resident arrivals per day was observed. This average was 69.7% higher than the average for the remaining Friday-to-Saturday periods in December.
Chart 3
US-resident trips to Canada by automobile, December, 2019 to 2025
Infographic 2
Trips to Canada by automobile, by country of residence, December 2025
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile decline for 12th consecutive month
In December, the number of Canadian-resident return trips by automobile from the United States totalled 1.3 million, a steep decline (-30.7%) from the same month in 2024 (Chart 4). December 2025 marked 12 consecutive months of year-over-year declines.
The highest number of returning Canadian-resident arrivals was observed on Sunday, December 28 (73,800). This number was 28.5% higher than the average for the other Sundays in December.
Chart 4
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile, December, 2019 to 2025
Focus on Canada and the United States
In December 2025, the number of arrivals to Canada by US residents by air decreased 8.9% from the same month in 2024, while arrivals by automobile decreased 9.0%.
Meanwhile, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by air fell 18.7% in December 2025 compared with the same month one year earlier. Canadian-resident return trips by automobile dropped 30.7%.
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.
Note to readers
This release provides an early indicator of travel based on preliminary data on international arrivals to Canada for December 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 February 23, 2026.
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 January 2026 will be released on February 11.
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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