Immigration to the Northwest Territories, Canada | Annual Arrivals and Census Trends

In 2025, The Northwest Territories welcomed 440 immigrants.

• In 2025, 393,530 new permanent residents were admitted to Canada, 0.11% of them landed in The Northwest Territories.
• From 2020 to 2025, The Northwest Territories was the destination for 1,845 new immigrants (permanent residents).
• The immigration data highlights a growing trend pre-pandemic levels, a sharp decline in 2020, and a steady upward trajectory in recent years.

Source: IRCC

Immigration to the Northwest Territories in Recent Years

Immigration to the Northwest Territories since 2020 has played a key role in supporting population stability and modest growth amid ongoing net losses from interprovincial migration. Net international migration turned positive and began rising from late 2020 after pandemic related restrictions eased, with annual gains climbing from around 168 people in 2020 to 2021 up to peaks of over 600 in recent years such as 624 in 2024. The territory welcomed roughly 810 recent immigrants between 2016 and 2021 according to census data, and programs like the Northwest Territories Nominee Program helped attract skilled workers through employer driven streams that saw increased approvals in the early 2020s. Without this international inflow the population would likely have declined in several years given negative domestic migration and low natural increase. Overall the immigrant share of the population reached about 10 percent by 2021 with the total number of immigrants living in the territory rising gradually to around 456 by some later estimates though numbers remain small compared to southern Canada.

IMMIGRATION TO THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES