Spousal sponsorship in Canada by the numbers: how many spouses and partners become permanent residents
- 201964,775
- 202036,130
- 202164,440
- 202264,150
- 202375,270
- 202472,870
- 202565,300
Source: IRCC open data (rounded, sum of provinces and territories). Full calendar years.
The short answer
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) publishes how many people become permanent residents each month, by province and by immigration category. One of those categories is "Sponsored Spouse or Partner". This article looks at the people IRCC admitted under that category.
In 2025, about 65,300 sponsored spouses and partners became permanent residents. That is down from about 75,270 in 2023, the highest year in IRCC's file, which starts in 2015.
Adding up IRCC's rounded monthly figures, the number from January to August 2026 was 44,025. That is about 5% more than in the same eight months of 2025 (42,000).
Year by year
| Year | Sponsored spouses and partners | All sponsored family | Spouses and partners as a share of family |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 64,775 | 91,295 | 71% |
| 2020 | 36,130 | 49,305 | 73% |
| 2021 | 64,440 | 81,440 | 79% |
| 2022 | 64,150 | 97,380 | 66% |
| 2023 | 75,270 | 109,745 | 69% |
| 2024 | 72,870 | 105,990 | 69% |
| 2025 | 65,300 | 96,170 | 68% |
In every year shown, spouses and partners were the largest part of the sponsored family category. The rest is mostly sponsored parents and grandparents, plus a smaller number of sponsored children and other relatives.
2020 stands out as a low year. IRCC's file does not give reasons, and this article does not guess at them.
How big is it compared with all immigration?
In 2025, about 393,780 people became permanent residents across all categories. Sponsored spouses and partners were about 17% of them, or roughly one in six.
| Group (2025) | Permanent residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Economic programs | 228,330 | 58% |
| Sponsored family (all) | 96,170 | 24% |
| of which: spouses and partners | 65,300 | 17% |
| Refugees and protected persons | 59,170 | 15% |
| All other | 10,070 | 3% |
The shares do not add up to exactly 100% because of rounding, and because spouses and partners are already counted inside "Sponsored family".
Where sponsored spouses and partners go
The file also shows the province or territory where each new permanent resident said they planned to live.
| Province or territory | 2025 | Share of 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 32,710 | 50% |
| British Columbia | 10,320 | 16% |
| Alberta | 9,545 | 15% |
| Quebec | 7,070 | 11% |
| Manitoba | 2,125 | 3% |
| Saskatchewan | 1,300 | 2% |
| Nova Scotia | 965 | 1% |
| New Brunswick | 695 | 1% |
| All others | 570 | 1% |
About half of all sponsored spouses and partners in 2025 planned to live in Ontario.
How to read these numbers
- These are admissions: people who actually became permanent residents in that year. They are not the number of applications sent, and they say nothing about how long applications took.
- A person is counted in the year they were admitted as a permanent resident.
- IRCC rounds every number to the nearest 5 and hides very small numbers to protect privacy. The national figures in this article are the sum of IRCC's rounded figures for each province and territory, so they can differ slightly from other IRCC totals.
- IRCC says the data is preliminary and subject to change. This article uses the file dated 31 August 2026.
What this means for you
- The spouse or partner category is one of the largest single ways people become permanent residents of Canada. Tens of thousands of sponsored spouses and partners become permanent residents every year.
- The yearly totals cannot tell you how any single application will be decided, or how long it will take.
- If you are thinking about sponsorship, IRCC's official page on sponsoring a spouse, partner or children, linked in the sources above, has the current rules.
About this article
This article was written by SK for Newcomer Board with the help of AI tools. All numbers come from IRCC's open data file on permanent residents by province or territory and immigration category (data to August 2026), checked on 3 November 2026. National totals, shares and changes were calculated from that file and rounded. This is general information, not legal advice.