Population of Toronto, Canada 2025 | Statistics & Facts

Population of Toronto, Canada 2025

Toronto stands as Canada’s economic powerhouse and most populous urban center, experiencing remarkable demographic transformation in 2025. As the provincial capital of Ontario and the nation’s largest metropolitan region, Toronto continues to attract unprecedented numbers of newcomers from across the globe, cementing its position as one of North America’s fastest-growing cities. The Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) officially crossed the historic 7 million population mark in July 2024, reaching 7,106,379 residents according to Statistics Canada’s latest population estimates released in January 2025.

The city’s extraordinary growth trajectory reflects broader patterns of urbanization sweeping across Canada, with international migration serving as the primary catalyst for population expansion. Between July 2023 and July 2024 alone, Toronto added a record-breaking 268,911 new residents, representing a stunning 3.9% annual growth rate—the highest single-year increase ever documented for Canada’s largest metropolis. This explosive demographic surge surpasses the entire nation’s average annual population growth from 2010 to 2019, which hovered around 400,000 people yearly. The metropolitan region now encompasses approximately 44% of Ontario’s total provincial population of 16.1 million, underscoring Toronto’s overwhelming demographic dominance within Canada’s most populous province.

Interesting Stats & Facts About Population of Toronto, Canada 2025

Data Source: Statistics Canada – Canada’s Population Estimates: Subprovincial Areas, January 2025

The population of Toronto, Canada in 2025 reveals extraordinary demographic dynamics reshaping the metropolitan landscape. The region’s 7.1 million residents represent a watershed moment in Canadian urban development, with the city absorbing more than one-quarter of all new immigrants arriving in Canada. The 268,911-person increase between July 2023 and July 2024 dwarfs the population of entire Canadian cities, demonstrating Toronto’s unparalleled attractiveness as a destination for international migration. Remarkably, non-permanent residents contributed over 200,000 of this growth, reflecting Canada’s expanded temporary immigration programs for international students and temporary foreign workers.

The metropolitan region’s 5,902 square kilometre footprint stretches from Lake Simcoe’s southern shores to Lake Ontario’s northern coastline, encompassing municipalities from Ajax in the east to Oakville in the west. This vast urbanized territory now hosts 1,050.7 people per square kilometre, creating one of North America’s densest metropolitan concentrations. The city proper of Toronto itself contains an estimated 2,832,718 residents in 2025, while the broader metropolitan region includes York, Peel, Durham, and Halton’s regional municipalities. The median age of 38.2 years positions Toronto as relatively youthful compared to many Canadian regions, driven primarily by continuous influxes of working-age immigrants. Perhaps most striking, visible minorities constitute 57.2% of the metropolitan population according to the 2021 Census, making Toronto one of the world’s most ethnically diverse urban centers where no single ethnic or cultural group claims majority status.

Toronto CMA Population Growth Statistics in Canada 2025

Data Source: Statistics Canada – Annual Population Estimates by Census Metropolitan Area, 2024

The population growth of Toronto, Canada in 2025 demonstrates unprecedented acceleration following the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption to migration patterns. From 2019 to 2022, Toronto experienced relatively modest growth of approximately 150,000 residents across three years. However, 2023 marked a dramatic turning point as the metropolitan area added over 250,000 people in a single year, establishing a new historical record. This momentum intensified further in 2024, with the region adding nearly 270,000 residents—meaning Toronto welcomed over 500,000 new residents in just two calendar years, equivalent to adding a city the size of Hamilton twice over.

The 3.9% annual growth rate registered for both 2023 and 2024 represents the fastest sustained expansion since comparable metropolitan data collection began in 2001. This explosive growth outpaced both the national average of 3.0% and the aggregate growth rate for all Canadian census metropolitan areas of 3.5%. The city’s population trajectory shows how Toronto has evolved from gradual, steady growth pre-pandemic to explosive expansion post-2022, driven primarily by international migration rather than natural population increase. The 7,106,379 residents recorded in July 2024 exceed projections made just five years earlier, forcing urban planners and policymakers to rapidly adapt infrastructure, housing, and service delivery to accommodate this unprecedented demographic pressure. The two consecutive years of record-breaking growth have fundamentally reshaped Toronto’s demographic landscape, creating both opportunities and challenges for the metropolitan region’s future development.

Toronto Age Distribution Demographics in Canada 2025

Data Source: Statistics Canada – Toronto CMA Population by Age Group, 2024

The age distribution of Toronto’s population in Canada 2025 reveals a metropolitan region characterized by its robust working-age demographic, which constitutes over 70% of total residents. The 4,981,451 people aged 15 to 64 years form the economic backbone of Canada’s largest urban center, providing the workforce that powers Toronto’s position as the nation’s financial and commercial capital. Particularly notable is the concentration of residents aged 25 to 44 years, representing nearly 32% of the population—this cohort of approximately 2.3 million people encompasses professionals in their prime earning years, recent immigrants establishing careers, and young families purchasing homes.

The median age of 38.2 years positions Toronto as significantly younger than many comparable North American metropolitan regions, reflecting continuous immigration’s rejuvenating effect on the population structure. The 990,678 children aged 0 to 14 years represent almost 14% of residents, indicating healthy population replacement despite Canada’s below-replacement fertility rates. Meanwhile, the 1,134,250 residents aged 65 and older constitute nearly 16% of the population, demonstrating the beginning stages of population aging that demographers predict will intensify over coming decades as baby boomers continue retiring. The relatively modest proportion of seniors compared to working-age adults creates favorable dependency ratios, meaning Toronto has more workers supporting fewer dependents than many aging urban regions. This age structure, sustained by continuous immigration of working-age adults, provides Toronto with demographic advantages including economic dynamism, innovation capacity, and fiscal sustainability that regions with older populations struggle to maintain.

Immigration and Diversity Statistics for Toronto, Canada 2025

Data Source: Statistics Canada – Census of Population 2021, Immigration Statistics 2024

The immigration patterns shaping Toronto’s population in Canada 2025 position the metropolitan region as the undisputed primary destination for newcomers to Canada. Of the 464,265 immigrants who received permanent residency in Canada between July 2023 and July 2024, Toronto received 128,626—representing more than one-quarter of the nation’s total intake. This concentration far exceeds Toronto’s 19% share of Canada’s overall population, demonstrating the city’s outsized attractiveness to international migrants. The addition of over 200,000 non-permanent residents during the same period reflects Canada’s expanded temporary immigration programs, including international students, temporary foreign workers, and individuals with temporary protected status.

The 2,862,850 foreign-born residents documented in the 2021 Census constitute 46.6% of the Toronto CMA’s population—one of the highest proportions among major global cities, exceeded only by Miami and Dubai. This extraordinary diversity manifests in Toronto’s over 200 spoken languages and the fact that visible minorities represent 57.2% of residents, making Toronto potentially the world’s most ethnically diverse metropolitan region where no single ethnic or racial group claims majority status. South Asians form the largest visible minority community, followed by Chinese and Black populations, while Toronto hosts substantial Filipino, Latin American, West Asian, Arab, Southeast Asian, and Korean communities. The city’s established ethnic neighborhoods—including multiple Chinatowns, Little India, Greektown, Little Italy, Little Portugal, Little Jamaica, Koreatown, and Little Tokyo—reflect this extraordinary diversity. Immigration continues reshaping Toronto’s cultural landscape, with recent newcomers increasingly arriving from India, China, Philippines, Pakistan, and Nigeria, replacing earlier patterns dominated by European source countries. This ongoing transformation makes Toronto a global exemplar of multiculturalism, creating both opportunities through diversity’s economic and cultural benefits and challenges including integration, housing affordability, and service provision in multiple languages.

Toronto Population Density and Geographic Coverage in Canada 2025

Data Source: Statistics Canada, City of Toronto Official Data 2024

The geographic footprint of Toronto’s population in Canada 2025 encompasses an enormous 5,902 square kilometre metropolitan region stretching across southern Ontario’s most developed corridor. This vast urbanized territory extends from Lake Simcoe’s southern shores northward to Lake Ontario’s northern coastline, and from the municipality of Ajax in Durham Region eastward to Oakville in Halton Region westward—creating an urban belt approximately 80 kilometres wide along Lake Ontario’s shoreline. The metropolitan region includes 25 distinct municipalities across five regional governments: the City of Toronto, York Region, Peel Region, Durham Region, and Halton Region, each containing multiple cities, towns, and townships.

The population density of 1,050.7 people per square kilometre across the entire metropolitan area masks enormous variation between the intensely urbanized city core and suburban periphery. The City of Toronto proper, covering just 641 square kilometres, hosts an estimated 2.8 million residents at a density of 4,334 people per square kilometre—making it Canada’s densest major municipality and comparable to major American cities like Chicago. The city’s 180-kilometre perimeter encompasses diverse neighborhoods ranging from downtown high-rise districts to low-rise residential suburbs, with 8,000 hectares of parkland providing crucial green space within the urban fabric. Beyond Toronto’s municipal boundaries, suburban regions like Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, and Richmond Hill have evolved from bedroom communities into substantial cities with their own downtown cores, employment centers, and populations exceeding 200,000 to 600,000 residents each. This polycentric metropolitan structure, combined with continuous development pressure from population growth, has created urban sprawl concerns while simultaneously driving intensification efforts including condominium construction, transit-oriented development, and downtown core expansion. The over 7 million residents now distributed across this vast metropolitan landscape create both the critical mass necessary for economic dynamism and significant challenges regarding transportation infrastructure, housing supply, environmental sustainability, and service delivery coordination across multiple municipal jurisdictions.

Toronto Economic and Employment Demographics in Canada 2025

Data Source: Statistics Canada, City of Toronto Economic Data, Ontario Ministry of Labour 2024-2025

The economic profile of Toronto’s population in Canada 2025 reflects both the city’s status as Canada’s preeminent business center and emerging challenges from rapid population growth. Toronto’s 4.7 million-person labor force makes it the largest employment market in Canada, with the city contributing an extraordinary 20% of the nation’s entire GDP despite housing only approximately 19% of Canada’s population. The concentration of 666,980 jobs in downtown and city centers—representing 42.5% of total municipal employment—demonstrates Toronto’s role as a high-density employment hub where workers commute from across the metropolitan region and beyond.

The financial services sector exemplifies Toronto’s economic dominance, employing approximately 25% of Canada’s national financial services workforce and housing the Toronto Stock Exchange, the world’s seventh-largest stock exchange by market capitalization and North America’s third-largest after New York and Nasdaq. However, the 8.2% unemployment rate in Toronto in early 2025 exceeds Ontario’s provincial average of 6.8%, reflecting how rapid population growth has outpaced job creation in some sectors. Between 2018 and 2019, Toronto added 46,000 new jobs—a robust 3.1% annual employment growth rate—along with 920 new business establishments demonstrating economic vitality. The October 2024 increase in Ontario’s minimum wage to $17.20 per hour benefits approximately one million workers provincewide, many concentrated in Toronto’s service sectors including retail, hospitality, and food services.

The average Toronto home price of $1,135,215 in 2025 dramatically exceeds Ontario’s provincial average of $878,620, reflecting intense housing demand from population growth, creating affordability challenges particularly for younger residents and recent immigrants. This housing crisis has emerged as Toronto’s most pressing policy challenge, with the city adding residents far faster than housing units, driving prices and rents to levels that strain household budgets across income levels. The economic dynamism represented by Toronto’s $171 billion municipal GDP and $369 billion regional GDP coexists uneasily with affordability pressures, infrastructure deficits, and quality-of-life concerns that threaten to undermine the city’s competitive advantages if left unaddressed.

Toronto Migration Patterns in Canada 2025

Data Source: Statistics Canada – Components of Population Change, Toronto CMA, January 2025

The migration dynamics shaping Toronto’s population in Canada 2025 reveal a metropolitan region experiencing explosive international inflows simultaneously with significant domestic outflows. International migration contributed virtually all of Toronto’s 268,911-person increase between July 2023 and July 2024, with the combination of 128,626 permanent immigrants and over 200,000 net non-permanent residents more than offsetting losses from interprovincial and intraprovincial migration. The massive increase in non-permanent residents—encompassing international students, temporary foreign workers, and individuals with temporary protected status—represents the highest annual gain ever recorded for Toronto, reflecting both Canada’s expanded temporary immigration programs and Toronto’s dominance as a destination for international students attending universities and colleges.

However, the -69,522 net intraprovincial migration loss indicates that tens of thousands more people relocated from Toronto to other Ontario communities than moved to Toronto from elsewhere in the province. This ongoing exodus primarily reflects families and individuals seeking more affordable housing in smaller cities and towns within commuting distance of Toronto, including communities like Hamilton, Guelph, Barrie, Peterborough, and Kingston. Additionally, Toronto experienced approximately 10,000 net interprovincial losses, with Alberta emerging as the primary beneficiary, gaining roughly 40,000 people from interprovincial migration nationally, many from Ontario and particularly the Toronto region. These departures reflect Alberta’s stronger economic conditions, more affordable housing markets, and lower cost of living compared to Toronto’s expensive real estate and high living costs.

Natural increase—the difference between births and deaths—contributes minimally to Toronto’s population growth, reflecting Canada’s 1.26 children per woman fertility rate, well below the 2.1 replacement level. Without continuous international immigration, Toronto’s population would likely decline or grow minimally, similar to many developed world cities with below-replacement fertility. The dominance of India as the primary source country for immigrants, followed by China, Philippines, Pakistan, and Nigeria, continues reshaping Toronto’s ethnic composition. The federal government’s December 2024 decision to reduce immigration targets by approximately 20% and cap international student permits may slow Toronto’s explosive growth observed in 2023-2024, though the city will likely continue growing substantially faster than the national average. These migration patterns create a paradox where Toronto simultaneously attracts unprecedented international migration while losing domestic residents to more affordable locations, raising questions about long-term sustainability and livability as the metropolitan region absorbs hundreds of thousands of newcomers annually.

Toronto Housing and Infrastructure Indicators in Canada 2025

Data Source: Statistics Canada, Toronto Real Estate Board, City of Toronto Planning Data 2024-2025

The housing and infrastructure landscape of Toronto’s population in Canada 2025 presents the metropolitan region’s most acute challenge, with explosive population growth far outpacing housing construction and infrastructure expansion. Toronto’s average home price of $1,135,215 represents a 29% premium over Ontario’s provincial average of $878,620, pricing homeownership beyond reach for many working families, recent immigrants, and young professionals. The disparity becomes even more stark when comparing Toronto to other major Canadian cities—Montreal’s average home price hovers around $385,000, less than one-third of Toronto’s figure, while even Vancouver’s notoriously expensive market shows similar price points to Toronto.

The city’s 1,112,929 occupied private dwellings recorded in the 2016 Census grew by only 65,052 units between 2011 and 2016—a 6.2% increase that pales against the population growth rates exceeding 10-15% over similar recent periods. This persistent gap between population growth and housing supply creation has compressed the rental market equally severely, with average one-bedroom apartment rents in downtown Toronto exceeding $2,500 monthly and two-bedroom units commonly commanding $3,500-4,000 or more. The housing crisis forces many newcomers, students, and lower-income residents into precarious living situations including overcrowded apartments, basement apartments, rooming houses, and increasingly, homelessness.

Infrastructure struggles to accommodate growth across multiple dimensions. The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) system, serving over 1.8 million daily riders pre-pandemic, faces capacity constraints despite being North America’s third-busiest transit system. Highway congestion routinely ranks among continental worst performers, costing billions in lost productivity annually. The city’s 8,000 hectares of parkland and 200 kilometres of trails provide recreation, but per-capita green space decreases as population densifies. Both Toronto Pearson International Airport—Canada’s busiest, handling 50+ million passengers annually—and downtown Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport approach capacity limits. Healthcare facilities, schools, and social services similarly strain under population pressure, with emergency departments overcrowded and family doctors accepting virtually no new patients in many neighborhoods.

The 74.8% of Canadians now living in census metropolitan areas nationally—up 0.4 percentage points in just one year—demonstrates accelerating urbanization trends placing Toronto at the epicenter. With Toronto housing 44% of Ontario’s population and absorbing the lion’s share of provincial growth, the metropolitan region’s infrastructure deficit represents not just a local challenge but a provincial and national concern. Addressing this requires coordinated action across multiple government levels, massive infrastructure investment, regulatory reform to accelerate housing construction, and potentially policies to distribute growth more evenly across Ontario and Canada rather than concentrating it disproportionately in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal.

Toronto Population Projections and Future Trends in Canada 2025

Data Source: Statistics Canada Population Projections, Federal Immigration Policies 2024-2025

The future trajectory of Toronto’s population in Canada 2025 suggests continued substantial growth despite anticipated moderation from the record-breaking expansion observed in 2023-2024. Pre-2024 projections suggested Toronto’s metropolitan population would reach 8+ million by 2035 and the Greater Toronto Area would approach 9 million by 2036, representing additions of 1-2 million residents over the next decade. However, the federal government’s late-2024 decision to reduce immigration targets by approximately 20% and impose caps on international student permits will likely moderate growth rates from the extraordinary 3.9% annual increase observed recently toward more sustainable levels potentially in the 2-2.5% range.

The Statistics Canada data showing non-permanent resident growth slowing in the third and fourth quarters of 2024, even turning negative in some provinces, suggests the explosive temporary immigration surge that drove 2023-2024 growth may have peaked. The federal government’s policy shifts respond to concerns about infrastructure capacity, housing affordability, and quality-of-life pressures in major metropolitan areas—with Toronto experiencing these challenges most acutely. However, even at moderated growth rates, Toronto will likely add 150,000-200,000 residents annually over coming years, continuing to require massive housing construction, transit expansion, and infrastructure investment.

Demographic composition will continue shifting, with visible minorities already constituting 57.2% of the population in 2021 and likely exceeding 60% by 2025-2026 as immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America continues dominating inflows. The aging of baby boomers will gradually increase the proportion of residents aged 65+, though continuous immigration of working-age adults will partially offset this trend compared to regions with minimal immigration. The metropolitan region faces critical junctures regarding housing policy, with choices between intensification (building upward and densifying existing areas) versus continued sprawl (expanding the urban footprint outward), each presenting distinct tradeoffs for sustainability, affordability, and quality of life.

Toronto’s evolution over the next decade will likely determine whether the city maintains its competitive position as North America’s fastest-growing major metropolitan region and successfully integrates hundreds of thousands of newcomers while preserving livability, or struggles under the weight of infrastructure deficits, housing unaffordability, and strained social cohesion. The 268,911-person increase recorded between July 2023-2024 demonstrates both Toronto’s extraordinary attractiveness and the immense challenges accompanying such rapid transformation. Successfully managing this growth represents perhaps Canada’s most important urban policy challenge, with implications extending far beyond Toronto to shape national economic competitiveness, immigration policy, and the future character of Canadian cities in an increasingly urbanized world.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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