Canada on track to admit fewer permanent residents than planned for 2026

Over the first half of the year, Canada’s permanent resident admissions amounted to only 41% of the federal government’s annual target.

On August 18, 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) released new data showing that from January 1 through June 30, 2026, it had admitted 155,800 new permanent residents.

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January–June admissions amount to 34,200 fewer than the 190,000 that would be expected to pace toward the annual top-line target of 380,000, established in the federal government’s immigration levels plan.

To reach the midpoint of its annual top-line permanent residence admissions, Canada would need to admit a total of 224,200 permanent residents over the July–December period of 2026.

Economic

IRCC reports having admitted 89,200 new permanent residents under its economic category by June 30, against its 2026 target of 239,800.

IRCC was behind its economic target by 30,700 permanent residence admissions by mid-year.

This category consists of programs such as Express Entry, federal business programs like the start-up visa program, the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP), and federal economic pilots.

Family

IRCC has set a target of 84,000 permanent residence admissions under the family class for 2026.

As of mid-year, the department reports that 45,100 new permanent residents had been welcomed through this category.

For this category, landings exceeded the pace needed to hit the annual target by 3,100 permanent residents.

Those who land under the family class include spouses, partners, and dependents who have been sponsored by permanent residents or Canadian citizens, and those sponsored under the Parents and Grandparents Program.

Refugees and protected persons

There were 17,900 landings reported by the federal government under the refugees and protected persons category as of June 30.

The permanent residence admissions target for this category sits at 49,300 for 2026.

For this category, IRCC admitted 6,750 fewer landings than needed to stay on pace with its target.

This category consists of resettled refugees (government-assisted, privately sponsored, and visa-office referred), as well as individuals in Canada granted protection by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada or through IRCC’s pre-removal risk assessment process.

Humanitarian & Compassionate and Other

The 2026 admissions target for this category is the lowest of all, at 6,900.

By mid-year, the government had admitted 3,600 new permanent residents under this category from January to June.

IRCC was 150 admissions ahead of its target for this category by mid-year.

Eligibility under this category extends to humanitarian and compassionate cases, individuals displaced by international conflict, crisis, or natural disaster, and those who fall outside the scope of other immigration programs.

IRCC’s one-time initiatives

Between 2026 and 2027, Canada intends to admit 115,000 protected persons and 33,000 in-Canada workers as permanent residents through two “one-time initiatives.”

Admissions are split across the two years, with 2026 targets set at 46,000 for protected persons and 20,000 for in-Canada workers (*“In-Canada Workers Initiative”).

These admissions are on top of the “overall” 380,000 permanent residence admissions target set by the federal government for the year.

When these initiatives are accounted for, Canada's true admissions target for 2026 is 446,000.

As of June 30, IRCC had admitted 11,300 in-Canada workers and 15,000 protected persons under its one-time initiatives—putting the department 57% of the way to its 2026 target for in-Canada workers, and 33% of the way to its target for protected persons.

In total, therefore, Canada had already admitted 182,100 new permanent residents to Canada by mid-year.

At 182,100 admissions by the end of June—against a true target of 446,000—the government still remains behind pace, having reached 40.8% of that total by mid-year.

*The In-Canada Workers Initiative is for skilled workers who have been living in Canada in a rural community for at least two years and have submitted an application for permanent residence through a qualifying program, such as the PNP, AIP, or Agri-Food Pilot.

French-speaking permanent residence admissions

According to the latest data published by IRCC, 12,400 of the permanent residents admitted to Canada outside Quebec in the first six months of 2026 were French-speaking or bilingual.

Canada is aiming for 9% of all permanent residence admissions outside Quebec to fall into this category in 2026, as part of its broader effort to increase francophone immigration outside the province.

IRCC has supported this goal by prioritizing French-language proficiency through Express Entry's category-based selection—of the 114,865 invitations to apply issued through the system in 2026, 39.6% have gone to French-speaking candidates.

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