AI Analysis: Non-resident visitors entering Canada, by country of residence

Executive Summary

Statistics Canada's Table 24100050 tracks over 54 years of monthly non-resident visitor arrivals to Canada across 294 country/regional categories, revealing long-term growth punctuated by a catastrophic 84.4% collapse in 2020 due to COVID-19 and a historic 318.6% rebound in 2022. The dataset is heavily right-skewed, with the United States dominating as Canada's largest visitor source, while most country-month combinations record fewer than 988 visitors. As of January 2026, monthly arrivals stand at 1,404,733 — still well below the all-time peak of 7,006,165 recorded in July 1999.

Key Findings

• Total non-resident visitors peaked at 7,006,165 in a single month (July 1999), but as of January 2026 monthly arrivals have recovered to only 1,404,733 — still far below the historical high.
• COVID-19 caused the dataset's most extreme anomaly: a 84.4% year-over-year decline in 2020, reducing annual visitors to just 5,068,350 from pre-pandemic levels.
• The recovery was equally dramatic, with 2022 posting a 318.6% year-over-year surge to 17,923,648 visitors, followed by a further 51.8% gain in 2023 to reach 27,209,536 visitors.
• The data is heavily right-skewed: the mean visitor count is 29,209 but the median is just 91, with 75% of all 145,109 records showing fewer than 988 visitors per country-month combination.
• The United States is Canada's dominant source of non-resident visitors by a wide margin, reflecting geographic proximity and strong economic ties, and likely anchors the strongest correlations in the cross-country trend analysis.
• The dataset spans 649 monthly periods across 294 unique country or regional categories, with visitor counts ranging from 0 to over 7 million — a range of 7,006,165 — and a standard deviation of 287,239, confirming extreme variability.
• Bottom-ranked countries show very limited travel to Canada, likely driven by distance, visa restrictions, or economic barriers, while the top 15 source countries represent major global economies and close Canadian trading partners.