Immigrants in Winnipeg

Among Canada’s census metropolitan areas, Winnipeg concentrated the eighth largest immigrant population in 2011.

In 2011, one in five or 20.6% of Winnipeg’s population were immigrants.

In 2011, the largest groups of immigrants were from the Philippines, India, the United Kingdom, China and Germany. Other top immigration source countries were Poland, USA, Portugal, Viet Nam, Ukraine, Italy, South Korea, Russian Federation, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago; all together represented 71% of Winnipeg’s immigrant population.




El Salvador, Ethiopia, Netherlands, Hong Kong and Pakistan were also in the top 20 sources of immigration to Winnipeg.

In Winnipeg, the immigrant population grew 7.8% from 154,655 in 2001 to 166,755 in 2011.

From 2001 to 2011, in Winnipeg, among the top ten immigration source countries that experienced the highest increases were India (130%), the Philippines (116%) and China (73%). In contrast, the highest decreases were observed among immigrants from Poland (32%), Portugal (22%), UK and Germany (-14% each).

Note:

We would like to point out that we used data from the National Household Survey (NHS) knowing that its quality is still under criticism because this survey was conducted on a voluntary basis, so its validity, reliability and comparability with other instruments, such as population censuses, have become an issue. In fact, before the first release of the NHS results, Statistics Canada issued warnings and cautions when using the NHS data.

From 2005 to 2015, Winnipeg was the destination of choice for 114,695 new permanent residents.