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“The U.K. is consistently the largest source of immigrants to Nova Scotia,” notes a 2013 Nova Scotia Office of Immigration fact sheet. 

Not anymore. 

The makeup of where permanent residents come from has changed significantly in the last 10 years, shows data from the province and Citizenship and Immigration Canada

Where the U.K. accounted for the most arrivals in 2010 (441), it slipped to sixth in 2020 (140), a year where COVID-19 caused admission numbers to drop across the board. 

Five of the top 10 countries for 2010 admissions (Egypt, Iran, Bhutan, Iraq and Germany) were no longer in the top 10 for 2020. 

Besides the U.K., the only overlapping top 10 countries for 2010 and 2020 were India, China, the Philippines and the USA. 

Admissions of permanent residents to Nova Scotia by year



Top 10 Countries 

2010 

2020 

1 

UK 441 

India 715 

2 

Egypt 192 

China 475 

3 

Philippines 162 

Philippines 275 

4 

USA 152 

Syria 175 

5 

China 142 

South Korea 170 

6 

Iran 118 

UK 140 

7 

India 115 

USA 135 

8 

Bhutan 84 

Nigeria 100 

9 

Iraq 71 

Pakistan 90 

10 

Germany 69 

Morocco 75
Richard Woodbury

Richard writes for both local and national publications and his work has been published by Reuters, Metro and Enterprise Magazine.