2006 Census: Educational Portrait of Canada, 2006 Census: Immigration

Immigrants account for a large proportion of doctorate and master's degree holders

The census enumerated 4,076,700 persons born outside Canada between the ages of 25 and 64. Of these people, 1,287,500, or about one-third (32%), had a university degree.

Of the 'recent' immigrants – those who immigrated between 2001 and 2006 – 349,800, or 51%, had a university degree. This was more than twice the proportion of degree holders among the Canadian-born population (20%) and much higher than the proportion of 28% among immigrants who arrived in Canada before 2001.

In contrast, only 11% of recent immigrants in this age range had a college diploma and only 5% had a trades certificate. These proportions were considerably less than the 14% of the Canadian-born population who had a trades certificate and the 22% with a college diploma.

Nearly 101,300 recent immigrants, or 15% of the total, had a high school diploma, and 63,900, or 9%, did not have a high school diploma.

Although 23% of Canadians aged between 25 and 64 were born outside Canada, they accounted for nearly one-half (49%) of the doctorate holders in Canada and for 40% of adults with a master's degree.

About 16% of recent immigrants who had a doctorate or master's degree earned their degree at a Canadian university. About 14% of those with a doctorate earned their degree in the United States of America, but only 36% of these immigrants were born in the United States of America.

The biggest source country for master's degrees for recent immigrants, after Canada, was India; about 14% of them earned their master's degree in India. Another 10% earned their degree in China. The vast majority (97%) of these graduates were also born in these countries.

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