Deportations per 100,000 residents in Canada, 1925 to 2025

This issue covers how many people Canada deported or removed each year from 1925 to 2025, per 100,000 residents. It comes in three images: the chart, the Party Scoreboard (Liberal vs Conservative / PC) and the PM Scoreboard (the average under each Prime Minister).

On the chart, each year is shaded by the federal party in office for most of that year: red for Liberal, blue for Conservative and Progressive Conservative (PC). Diagonal stripes mark minority governments.

This is the hardest measure we have charted. No single official count runs through the century: the count before 1972 and the count from 1984 measure different things, and we found no usable yearly figures for 1972 to 1983. So each era is scored on its own, and this issue tests the party comparison several ways.

In brief. In 2025 Canada removed 23,160 people, 55.7 for every 100,000 residents, the highest since the removals count began in 1984; 27% of them were administrative removals of people who had already left, and without those the rate would be 40.6. From 1925 to 1971, the yearly rate of people deported after admission peaked at 71.5 in 1932, in the Depression, and stayed below 7 from 1935 to 1967. From 1984, removals rose from 6.5 per 100,000 in 1986 to 54.5 in 2012, fell to 19.7 in 2021 and rose again to 2025. Before 1972, Conservative and PC years average 20.3 per 100,000 against 8.1 in Liberal years, but the median years (the middle year when the years are lined up from lowest to highest) are close (4.2 and 3.9) and the gap comes from the Depression years 1930 to 1935: without them, Liberal years are higher. From 1984, the two are almost the same: 28.3 in Liberal years and 27.4 in Conservative and PC years. Shading and ranks show who was in office, not who caused the result.

The numbered markers give context, not credit or blame:

We marked 11 of the many events that federal records, the Library of Parliament, the courts or the federal government's museums and archives tie to deportations or to the rules for removing people: two world events and nine federal measures. Of the nine measures, seven fall in Liberal years and two in Conservative and PC years; Liberals held office in 70 of the 101 years. We considered other events and did not mark them, because we found no source that ties them to removals or because they sit too close to another marker to read. Unlike the Comments column, markers can include a funding decision when a source ties it to removals (2024). IRPA is the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act; DCO stands for designated countries of origin, a list of countries whose citizens' refugee claims were handled faster and with fewer appeals.

Canada's official count changed twice, and the chart shows both counts without joining them.

From 1925 to 1971 the count is people "deported after admission": people admitted to Canada and later sent out of the country, as the immigration department reported them and the Canada Year Book printed them. Until the early 1950s the totals include family members who left with them (7% to 13% of the totals in 1930 to 1934). People refused at the border are not in it. The tables for the 1940s and early 1950s (Year Books of 1948-49, 1951 and 1952-53) are titled "Deportations of Immigrants and Others". For 1925 to 1929 only fiscal years are printed (April to March); each is charted in the year it starts.

From 1984 the count is removals carried out: people who left Canada under a removal order, as the immigration department, then Citizenship and Immigration Canada and, from 2003, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) reported them. Since 2018 this count also includes "administrative removals": people recorded as removed because the agency confirmed they had already left on their own. Those were 1,684 in 2019, 8,644 in 2020 (67% of that year's total) and 27% of the 2025 total.

Between the two, we found no usable yearly count:

Where only a fiscal-year figure exists (1925 to 1929, and from 1984: 1984, 1985, 1987, 1993, 2004 to 2008 and 2014 to 2016), the chart shows it as a dashed line, in the year the fiscal year starts. Where both exist, the two can differ by a fifth: 6,438 removals in calendar 1994 against 5,050 in the year from April 1994. Nothing is estimated to fill the gaps.

The rate divides each year's count by the number of residents on July 1, the same population as the immigrants issue (Statistics Canada's July 1 estimate from 1971; its June 1 estimate multiplied by 1.018 before).

The reasons below are the ones official sources support.

The Party Scoreboard gives each era its own rows, because the two counts measure different things. From 1925 to 1971 it counts 47 years, 36 Liberal and 11 Conservative and PC: the average was 10.9 per 100,000 across the era, 8.1 in Liberal years and 20.3 in Conservative and PC years, and the median 3.9, 3.9 and 4.2. From 1984 to 2025 it counts the 42 years with a figure, 23 Liberal and 19 Conservative and PC: the average was 27.9, 28.3 in Liberal years and 27.4 in Conservative and PC years, and the median 26.9, 26.9 and 25.2. The median is the middle value when the years are lined up from lowest to highest; a few extreme years pull an average a long way, and the median is less affected.

We tested each era several ways.

Chance. To see how large a gap chance alone produces, we shuffled the party labels across each era's years 100,000 times. Before 1972, a gap at least as large as the board's 12.2 came up in 2% of the shuffles; from 1984, a gap as large as 1.0 came up in 81%. Neighbouring years resemble each other, so we also kept each party's unbroken stretches in office together and tried every way of assigning the parties to them. Each era has only five stretches, which can be assigned in 10 ways, so this test can never show less than 10%. Before 1972, 4 of the 10 gave a gap at least as large (40%). From 1984, all 10 did. Read together: the gap before 1972 is unusual for scattered years, but it comes from one run of years, and the stretch test cannot tell it apart from chance.

The Depression years. The five Conservative years 1931 to 1935 include the two highest years of the deported-after-admission count (1932 and 1931). Without 1930 to 1935, the first era's order reverses: Liberal years average 7.2 per 100,000 and Conservative and PC years 3.5 (the remaining Conservative years are Diefenbaker's). That reversal is itself well within chance: 22% of the shuffles gave a gap that large, and 3 of the 4 stretch arrangements did. Counting only calendar years (leaving out the fiscal years 1925 to 1929) widens the first era's gap: Conservative and PC years 20.3, Liberal years 5.8, a gap that came up in under 1% of the shuffles but in 5 of the 10 stretch arrangements.

Timing. Compared with each decade's own average, Conservative and PC years before 1972 ran 6.2 above and Liberal years 1.9 below; from 1984, Conservative and PC years ran 2.4 above and Liberal years 1.9 below. Both gaps came up often in the stretch arrangements (20% and 50%).

Spans of the second era. (1984 counts as a Liberal year because Liberals held office for most of it, but its figure covers April 1984 to March 1985, mostly under a Progressive Conservative government. Counted as Conservative, the Liberal lead widens to about 29.0 against 26.7.)

Policy takes time. Crediting each year to the party in office the year before turns the second era's small Liberal lead into 29.1 against 27.2; before 1972 it narrows the Conservative and PC lead to 15.1 against 9.4, and with a two-year delay it reverses (Liberal 11.2, Conservative and PC 9.0). With a two-year delay, the second era's Liberal lead grows to 30.3 against 27.0.

The number of people, not the rate. Before 1972, Conservative and PC years average 2,315 people a year against 1,089 in Liberal years. From 1984, Liberal years average 9,812 and Conservative and PC years 8,957.

Volatility. Before 1972 the rate moved 9.2 per 100,000 a year on average in Conservative and PC years and 1.5 in Liberal years, almost all of it in the early 1930s; from 1984, 4.7 in Liberal years and 4.1 in Conservative and PC years.

What is left: before 1972, Conservative and PC years had a higher average rate because of the Depression deportations of 1930 to 1935; without those years Liberal years are higher, and the median years are close. From 1984 there is almost no difference on the full span, and which party comes out higher depends on the years and the count used. No gap is clearly larger than chance once neighbouring years are kept together. The count also depends on rules, refugee claims, agency funding and how removals are recorded, and the comparison cannot separate those from who held office. That describes who was in office when the number moved. It does not show that either party caused it.

The PM Scoreboard sorts each term by the average number of people deported or removed per 100,000 residents over the term's years with a figure, from the highest to the lowest. Rank 1 is the highest level, not the best or worst result. Terms up to 1971 count people deported after admission and terms from 1984 count removals, which include more kinds of cases, so the later terms sit higher partly because of the count.

Most rows are a term: one unbroken stretch as Prime Minister, however many elections it spans. Each year counts in proportion to the days in office that year, so 1957 counts partly for Louis St-Laurent and partly for John Diefenbaker. The "Years counted" column adds up those shares over the years that have a figure, so terms in the gap years count fewer years. The 14 ranked rows are 13 terms and one combined row.

R.B. Bennett's term ranks first, at 41.7 per 100,000 (1930 to 1935, the Depression deportations), then Stephen Harper (41.0) and Paul Martin (36.3). The lowest are Mackenzie King's third term (3.2, 1935 to 1948), John Diefenbaker (3.5) and Louis St-Laurent (3.6). Among the terms after 1984, Stephen Harper's is the highest and Brian Mulroney's the lowest (11.9); Justin Trudeau's is 28.7.

Mackenzie King has a combined row, shaded grey, which weights each term by its years counted: all three terms 9.4. Pierre Trudeau's two terms are not combined, because the first is counted in the first era and the second in the second.

Five rows are listed below the ranking without a rank: Arthur Meighen's second term (16.5), Pierre Trudeau's second term (13.6), John Turner (13.6), Kim Campbell (24.6) and Mark Carney (55.7). Each rests on less than one year with a figure. Pierre Trudeau's second term (1980 to 1984) falls mostly in the gap years: only part of 1984 has a figure. Mark Carney took office in March 2025 and was in office for 0.8 of 2025, the latest full year of data.

The right-hand column of the PM Scoreboard names the federal laws, regulations and orders in council that changed who may be removed from Canada or how removal works (the grounds, removal orders, appeals and hearings, including who may have a refugee claim heard), counted in the term in which they took effect. The same test was applied to every Prime Minister, so several rows are blank; one item was not checked: the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act (Mackenzie King's first term) was not read for removal clauses.

Left out for every term:

An order in council is a cabinet decision with legal force. Terms with nothing that passes the test have no comment, among them R.B. Bennett, John Diefenbaker and Paul Martin. Joe Clark's term (1979 to 1980) falls entirely in the years without a figure, so it has no row. Mark Carney's comment is a law that took effect in March 2026, after the chart's last year, for claims made from June 3, 2025. Comments give context. They do not assign credit or blame. Sources for every comment are in the source list at the end of the web version of this issue.

From 1925 to 1971 each year comes from the Canada Year Book's tables of deportations (the editions of 1934-35, 1942, 1948-49, 1951, 1952-53, 1961, 1966, 1970-71, 1972 and 1973), checked against the page images; where a table prints both the causes and the total, the rows add to the total in every year. From 1984 each year comes from the federal department or agency responsible: statements by the minister and officials to Commons committees (1986 and 1988 to 1992, 1994), Citizenship and Immigration Canada's performance reports (1995 to 2002), the CBSA's reports and open data (2003, 2009 to 2013), a CBSA briefing to the Commons immigration committee (2017 and 2018) and the CBSA's removal statistics page (2019 to 2025), with fiscal-year figures from the departments' spending estimates and performance reports where no calendar figure exists. The CBSA's own figures for a year differ slightly between versions of its statistics page; each figure is the one on the dated version listed in the sources.

Population: the July 1 estimate from 1971 (Statistics Canada, tables 17-10-0005-01 and 17-10-0009-01); the June 1 estimate multiplied by 1.018 for 1925 to 1970 (table 17-10-0063-01). The rate is people deported or removed divided by that population, times 100,000.

More on the method: How the charts work

Who we are: About Gov Scoreboard

Spot an error? Write to [email protected].

Sources: Canada Year Book (1934-35 to 1973), deportation tables; Employment and Immigration Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency (1984-2025); population adapted from Statistics Canada, Tables 17-10-0063-01, 17-10-0005-01 and 17-10-0009-01 (retrieved 2026-10-14). This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.

Dates in office: House of Commons, Procedure and Practice (4th ed., 2025), Appendix 6.

Gov Scoreboard