December 16, 2025 — In 2024, 3.1 percent of all births in Canada were of mothers who were born in the Philippines.
This makes the Philippines second to India as most prevalent source country of immigrant mothers who gave birth in Canada in the said year.
Moreover, the contribution of immigrant Filipino mothers to total births in Canada has been on the rise. It has doubled from the ratio of 1.5 percent in 1997.
This finding is significant because it demonstrates how Filipinos are playing an important role in shaping Canada’s population.
As a recent Statistics Canada study states, the total number of births in the country would have declined faster since 2010 without the presence of foreign-born mothers.
Likewise, “Without the contribution of foreign-born individuals to births and deaths, natural increase in Canada would have been negative since 2022.”
The paper is titled “The contribution of foreign-born mothers to Canadian births from 1997 to 2024”, and it was released on November 13, 2025.
“A country’s population growth is based on natural increase (births minus deaths) and migratory increase (immigrants plus non-permanent residents minus emigrants). Not only do immigrants play a major role in international migration, but they also contribute to natural increase by having children in the host country and dying there,” author Claudine Provencher wrote.
Provencher noted that the natural increase in population in Canada began to decline in 2010.
This was “mainly because deaths are increasing year over year due to population growth and aging, but also because of an overall decline in births amid lower fertility”.
“As a result,” Provencher noted, “natural increase saw one of its lowest levels in 2023 (26,426 people), after reaching a low of 18,136 people the previous year.”
The study reported that more than two in five newborns (42.3 percent) in Canada in 2024 had a foreign-born mother, meaning a mother who was born outside Canada.
The paper noted that this proportion has nearly doubled in just over a quarter of a century from 22.5 percent in 1997.
In detail, the annual number of births to foreign-born mothers generally increased from 78,785 in 1997 to 154,687 in 2024.
“Although there were 270 possible countries of origin of the mother recorded on birth registrations for the period of study (which sometimes include regions of birth when the country is not known), the most prevalent at the national level were India, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, the United States, Sri Lanka, and Mexico,” the study noted.
After India’s share in total births 10.3 percent and the Philippines’s 3.1 percent in 2024, China follows at two percent.
Using 2023 as a reference year, the study compared Canada’s proportion of births to foreign-born mothers to nine selected countries. These countries are Australia, England and Wales, Germany, Spain, U.S., Switzerland, France, Denmark, and Netherlands.
The paper noted that in 2023, Canada had the highest proportion at 39.3 percent. Australia followed second at 36.5 percent. England and Wales and Germany tied at third with 31.8 percent.
The study also shared trends in Canada’s most populous province.
For example, in Ontario, the seven main birth countries of foreign-born mothers were India, Pakistan, China, Philippines, Sri Lanka, U.S., and Jamaica.
In Alberta, the seven most common countries of birth for foreign-born mothers were India, Philippines, China, Pakistan, Mexico, U.S., and U.K.
In British Columbia, the countries of origin of foreign-born mothers are concentrated among seven countries: India, China, Philippines, U.S., South Korea, U.K., and Vietnam.
Quebec bucks the general trend.
“In 2024, the seven most common countries of origin were (in descending order) Haiti (2.6%), Algeria (2.5%), France (2.1%), Morocco (2.0%), China (0.9%), the Philippines (0.7%) and Lebanon (0.6%),” the study noted.
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