Canadian trips overseas exceed road trips to U.S.: StatCan

The number of return trips made by Canadian residents from the U.S. dropped by over 20 per cent in January, one year into U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, Statistics Canada reported Monday (March 23).

“Starting in early 2025, travel trends among Canadian residents shifted alongside the political tensions between Canada and the United States,” StatCan said on its website.

“In January 2026, Canadian residents returned from 2.1 million trips to the U.S., representing a 22 per cent decrease from the same month in 2025 and marking the 13th consecutive month of year-over-year decline.”

In contrast, return trips by Canadian residents from destinations outside the U.S. rose by 10.6 per cent year-over-year in January 2026.

StatCan reported that 1.5 million Canadians returned from other countries during that month.

The agency pointed out that this figure surpassed the number of automobile trips to the U.S. in the same month for the first time since digital “Frontier Counts” tracking began in 1972, excluding the pandemic years.

“Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile declined 26.3 per cent to 1.3 million in January. Of these arrivals, 67.5 per cent were same-day trips,” StatCan said.

Meanwhile, the number of return trips by air from the United States (753,400) decreased 12.8 per cent compared with January 2025.

In total, all 3.6 million Canadian-resident return trips from abroad in January represented an 11 per cent decrease compared to the same month last year.

Arrivals

Trips to Canada by U.S. residents also declined year-over-year in January, though only slightly, according to StatCan.

In January 2026, U.S.-resident trips to Canada (1.1 million) edged down 0.3 per cent from the same month in 2025, it said, noting that arrivals by car were down slightly, while arrivals by air increased by 2.7 per cent year-over-year.

At the same time, visits to Canada by residents of countries other than the U.S. fell by 2.1 per cent in January compared with the same month in 2025, marking the first drop since March of the previous year.

Travel from Asia decreased by 18.6 per cent compared to January last year, driving the overall decline, though this was partly balanced by increases in visitors from the Americas and Europe.

In January, the leading countries of residence for overseas visitors were Mexico, the United Kingdom and France, making up 28.2 per cent of all international arrivals to Canada, StatCan noted.

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