Nearly two in five babies born in 2024 had a foreign-born mother

Released: Friday, November 14, 2025

In recent years, Canada’s population growth has been driven largely by immigration. This week’s chart explores how this trend has impacted births across the country. More specifically, it examines the proportion of newborns with foreign-born mothers. The latest data from Statistics Canada shows that 365,737 babies were born in 2024, and more than two in five of all newborns (42.3%) had a foreign-born mother. This proportion has almost doubled in just over 25 years. In addition, nearly three in five babies (57%) born to mothers over 40 had a foreign-born mother. So, which country do these new mothers tend to be born in? Between 1997 and 2024, the proportion of newborns with mothers born in India increased nearly fivefold increase from 2.1% to 10.3%, making it the leading country of origin for new foreign-born mothers in 2024. Mothers born in the Philippines are second, accounting for 3.1% of all births, followed by China with 2.0% of all births.

Data for the above chart comes from Statistics Canada The contribution of foreign-born mothers to Canadian births from 1997 to 2024.

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