Leading indicator of cross-border traveller volume, July 2017

The number of travellers entering Canada is a key economic indicator of international trade and tourism growth. Most foreign travellers entering the country on any given day are from the United States and use an automobile as their mode of transportation. On an average day, 300,000 travellers enter Canada.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) uses different data sources to collect information on travellers entering the country. The CBSA then provides the data to Statistics Canada, which processes and releases them six weeks after the end of the reference month. One of the CBSA's data sources, the Integrated Primary Inspection Line (IPIL), yields data in an electronic format that requires less processing. These data account for the largest share of US residents entering Canada by automobile.

The leading indicator is derived from the number of US residents entering Canada by automobiles licenced in the United States and through ports equipped with the IPIL system. Travellers who cross the border using a Nexus card, and US residents in automobiles with Canadian licence plates, are not included in the figures. A traveller's state of residence is estimated from the licence plate of the automobile used to enter Canada.

Starting with the release of October 2016, data are available in formats that provide more detail on the entries of persons from each American state. Data in these new formats for the months since January 2015 are available upon request.