Backgrounder - Citizenship Fast Facts

The year 2006 marks the 59^th anniversary of Canadian citizenship.
In 1947, Canada became the first Commonwealth country to gain its own citizenship act.
Before that, Canadians were considered British subjects living in Canada, not Canadian citizens.
The prime minister at the time, William Lyon Mackenzie King, became the first Canadian citizen.

Since the first citizenship act was enacted, almost 5.7 million people have been granted Canadian citizenship.
In 2005, citizenship grants were up by 2% from 2004: 196,068 individuals took the oath of citizenship in 2005, compared to 193,025 in the previous year.
According to the 2001 census, about 84% of eligible immigrants are Canadian citizens.
In 2005, 2,575 citizenship ceremonies were held across Canada.
See the table below for the number of people who took the oath of citizenship in 2005, 2004 and 2003.

Province	2005	2004	2003
Alberta	12,217	12,743	10,353
British Columbia	33,782	32,059	29,365
Manitoba	2,315	3,244	2,505
New Brunswick	634	361	374
Newfoundland and Labrador	269	278	175
Nova Scotia	1,696	1,043	910
Northwest Territories	58	59	35
Nunavut	1	16	8
Ontario	115,605	122,668	87,611
Prince Edward Island	100	79	138
Quebec	28,119	18,698	19,189
Saskatchewan	612	1,249	1,286
Yukon	67	20	75
Outside Canada / Unspecified	593	508	3,093
Total	196,068	193,025	155,117

262,236 immigrants came to Canada in 2005.
In 2005, the top five provinces of destination were Ontario (140,533), British Columbia (44,767), Quebec (43,308), Alberta (19,399), Manitoba (8,097).

According to the 2001 census, almost one out of every five Canadian residents (18.4%) was born outside the country.

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