Starting from 2020, Ontario began to witness a mass exodus of people moving to other parts of Canada, and this trend accelerated in 2023, but upon closer inspection, one particular demographic group is moving: the twenty-somethings, a group overwhelmingly made up of renters.

Last year, 14,100 people in their twenties moved from Ontario to other provinces and territories, which is at least double the net interprovincial migration for other age groups.

There is no definitive indication that people in their twenties are leaving because of high rents, but cities in the province represent eight of the 10 most expensive rental cities, according to Rentals.ca, and the majority of people in this age group are
renters.

For young people who changed provinces last year, the most popular destination was Alberta, where net interprovincial migration was 15,500 people, and rents in Alberta are generally lower than in Ontario, although Rentals.ca said the province saw the second highest year-over-year increase in purpose-built apartment and residential suite rents in January, at 17.8%.

Even with young people moving out of Ontario, migration fills the gap and more; last year, more than 40,000 immigrants in their twenties moved to Ontario, and the province, like the rest of Canada, experienced an influx of international students, and last month, the federal government imposed a two-year cap on the number of international students.

The influx of young immigrants has made the national age younger, according to Statistics Canada, and for the first time in 65 years, the average and median age in Canada slightly decreased last year from 41.7 to 41.6 and from 40.9 to 40.6 respectively.