42% of babies born in Canada to foreign

Oh, mama!

Statistics Canada says last year more than two-in-five newborns, or 42.3%, in Canada had a foreign-born mother – as in a mother who was born outside Canada.

That proportion has nearly doubled in just over a quarter of a century from when it was 22.5% in 1997.

The adjusted proportion of foreign-born women among women of childbearing age was estimated at 32.3% in the 2021 Census, slightly lower than the percentage of births to foreign-born mothers, which was 33% the same year.

Stats Can says this trend has been ongoing in the last five censuses, suggesting that foreign-born women are more likely to give birth in Canada than Canadian-born women of the same age.

The federal agency summarizes that without the contribution of foreign-born mothers, the total number of births in Can