From 2021 to 2022, the number of international students in Canada grew 116 per cent. In 2023, it rose another 60 per cent, to roughly 900,000. In 2000, Canada had just 122,665 international students. We now have seven times that number.
Part of the problem is a rush in applications after pandemic restrictions were lifted. But Ottawa predicts the growth in applications will continue — reaching 1.4 million in 2027. If so, foreign students will continue to be a significant element in Canada’s record population growth — and in the attendant pressure on housing, infrastructure and health care.
