Charles III has officially been the king of the United Kingdom and Canada since September 8, 2022. On May 6, Charles III will receive his crown.
Canada and the United Kingdom have much more in common beyond sharing a monarch. In fact, the United Kingdom ranks among our most important trading and tourism partners in the world. Almost one in three people living in Canada today trace their roots back to the United Kingdom.
Most “British” Canadians trace their Canadian roots back three generations or more
Over half (55.4%) of the 8.8 million Canadians we counted during the 1921 Census of Population reported a “British” identity. Over twice as many Canadians reported British ancestry in the 2021 Census of Population (11.1 million) compared with one century earlier (4.9 million), but their share of the total population has fallen to under one-third (30.8%).
While “British” is a broad term to describe those who originally hailed from what we now call the United Kingdom, 10 distinct “British” regional identities were reported during the 2021 Census.
Just under half of the 11.1 million Canadians who reported a British identity traced their roots back to jolly olde England (5.3 million people). Almost four in five “Englanders” (78.3%) living in Canada in 2021 traced their Canadian roots back three generations or more.
Just under 4.4 million Canadians reported Scottish roots in 2021, with 87.0% living in Canada for three generations or more.
The former Prince of Wales is now the constitutional monarch of just under 456,000 Welsh Canadians, 92% of which trace their Canadian roots back three generations or more.
Almost 940,000 Canadians reported British Isles ancestry and left it at that.
Gold is Canada’s largest export to the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom was Canada’s third most important export market in 2022, with the $18.5 billion in annual trade accounting for 2.4% of Canada’s total exports. Canada’s largest exports to the United Kingdom in 2022 were metal and non-metallic mineral products—mostly gold ($12.0 billion)—and energy products ($2.3 billion).
Canada imported $8.7 billion in goods from the United Kingdom, resulting in a trade surplus of $9.8 billion in 2022. Approximately 1.2% of Canada’s total imports came from the United Kingdom. Canada’s largest imports from the United Kingdom in 2022 were consumer goods ($2.1 billion) and industrial machinery, equipment and parts ($1.5 billion).
Travel between Canada and the United Kingdom recovered in 2022
Following two years of very little global travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, travel between Canada and the United Kingdom rose in 2022. Canadian residents took 194,000 visits to the United Kingdom in the third quarter of 2022, making it the third most popular overseas travel destination for that quarter.
Despite the rebound in Canadian visits to the United Kingdom in the third quarter of 2022, compared with the same quarter of 2021, Canadian-resident visits in the third quarter of 2022 were 84.7% of those taken during the same quarter of 2019, before the pandemic, when 229,000 Canadian residents crossed the pond.
United Kingdom residents made 636,300 trips to Canada in 2022—over five and half times the same number from one year earlier and 70.0% of the pre-pandemic level from 2019—making it Canada’s most important source of overseas travellers.
Contact information
For more information, contact the Statistical Information Service (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).