Recent data from the US Census Bureau has revealed that more than 126,340 people emigrated from Canada to the US in 2022 – a 70 percent increase from 2012  in a move many have attributed to the country’s increasingly high cost of living. However, as a nation that granted permanent residency to 2.5 million people in just eight years  and thousands more expected to settle south of the border in the coming years, it’s an alarming trend that has the potential to undermine the country’s robust immigration policy.

Living costs in Vancouver and Toronto have always exceeded the national average but soaring home prices are steadily pricing people out of the market altogether as the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reports a record shortage of affordable housing . Despite a similar uptick in housing costs, the US was the preferred choice for the 53,311 Canadians who made the move and the 42,595 Americans who returned home in 2022.

The rising cost of living has also led to an increase in the number of people seeking debt solutions in Canada with the country now home to the highest household debt to disposable income ratio in the G7 . This article will compare several key cost of living categories in Canada and the US, focusing on how some of the biggest price gaps could be to blame for the recent spike in immigration rates.