In the 2021 census, Statistics Canada counted 46.6 percent of people in the Toronto census metropolitan area as immigrants, the highest share of any large urban center in the country and double the national figure of 23.0 percent. The pattern is old. Black refugees reached Upper Canada before 1865, between 38,000 and nearly 40,000 Irish famine migrants passed through the city in 1847, and by the early 1900s a district known as the Ward housed Jewish, Italian, and Chinese newcomers within walking distance of where City Hall now stands.
This article follows those groups through documented events, with census figures given by year and source. The general history of the city is covered in the overview of Toronto history.
What the census says about immigration
Statistics Canada reported in its release on the 2021 census that immigrants made up 23.0 percent of Canada’s population, about 8.3 million people. That was the highest share since Confederation and above the previous record of 22.3 percent set in 1921. For the Toronto census metropolitan area, the same release gave 46.6 percent, the highest among large urban centers. Among recent immigrants across Canada between 2016 and 2021, India was the leading place of birth at 18.6 percent, followed by the Philippines at 11.4 percent and China at 8.9 percent. Those three figures describe the national total, not Toronto alone.
The 46.6 percent figure applies to the metropolitan area, not to the City of Toronto alone. Readers who need a figure for a specific boundary should check the Statistics Canada Census Profile for that boundary.
Timeline of documented arrivals and events
- 1793: Upper Canada passes an act that bans bringing enslaved people in from the United States and declares that anyone entering the province afterward is not subject to slavery, according to a University of Toronto Libraries exhibit. It does not ban slavery outright.
- 1845: The British Methodist Episcopal Church opens its first Toronto building, according to the City of Toronto Archives. The church served as a social, political, and spiritual center for the Black community.
- 1847: Between 38,000 and nearly 40,000 Irish migrants pass through a city of about 20,000, depending on the plaque. The Toronto Board of Health builds fever sheds at King and John Streets.
- 1878: Sam Ching runs a laundry at 9 Adelaide Street East, one of the earliest Chinese businesses recorded by the City of Toronto Archives.
- 1885: The federal Chinese Immigration Act imposes a $50 head tax on Chinese people entering Canada. The tax rises to $500 in 1903.
- 1923: The act is amended to halt Chinese immigration except for a small class of individuals. Sources disagree on the repeal year (see below).
- 1909: A Chinatown emerges on Elizabeth Street, north of Queen Street.
- 1955: City officials preparing for the new City Hall expropriate the shops and restaurants of the Elizabeth Street Chinatown. Construction begins in 1962.
- 1967: A new Chinatown emerges around Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street, after immigration laws allowed more Chinese immigrants, mostly from Hong Kong, to enter Canada, according to the City of Toronto Archives.
Black refugees and the Black community before 1900
The act of 1793 did not end slavery in Upper Canada. The University of Toronto Libraries exhibit notes that people continued to be bought and sold in Canada until the Slavery Abolition Act of 1834, and that the ban on importation let people born into slavery in the United States reach freedom in the colony. The same exhibit gives an estimate of 30,000 to 40,000 African Americans who fled to Canada between 1793 and 1865. This is an estimate, not a count.
One documented Toronto story is that of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn. Parks Canada states that they fled slavery in Kentucky, were arrested in Detroit in 1833, and escaped to Upper Canada when their capture set off riots. By 1834 they had settled in Toronto, where they established the city’s first cab company. They were designated National Historic Persons in 1999, and the commemorative plaque stands at 19 Sackville Street.
The City of Toronto Archives records that the British Methodist Episcopal Church established its first Toronto building in 1845 at 94 Chestnut Street. The Archives describes it as a social, political, and spiritual center for the Black community and a possible terminus of the Underground Railroad. It stayed there until 1955, when it merged with the Afro-Community Church on Shaw Street.
The Irish famine migration of 1847
A plaque on the 1847 fever sheds, transcribed on Read the Plaque, states that nearly 40,000 Irish immigrants passed through Toronto, then a city of about 20,000, and that 863 died of typhus in the sheds in the summer of 1847. The sheds, at least 12 buildings at the northwest corner of King and John Streets, were erected by the Toronto Board of Health. The Toronto Irish Famine Memorial plaque, donated by the Ireland Park Foundation, gives a different set of numbers: some 38,000 passed through the city, and by the end of 1847 over 1,100 had died of typhus, with 281 buried on the site. The two plaques may count different periods, but neither text says so, so the discrepancy stays open. Toronto’s first Roman Catholic bishop, Michael Power, died of typhus on October 1, 1847, after caring for the sick.
The Ward and the first immigrant districts
St. John’s Ward, known as the Ward, lay in downtown Toronto near what is now Queen and Bay Streets. The Toronto Ward Museum describes it as the first stop for many newcomers from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, home to Toronto’s early Jewish community, its first Little Italy, and its first Chinatown. Its residents also included African Canadians, Irish refugees, and formerly enslaved African Americans. After several attempts at “slum clearance,” the Ward had been largely torn down by 1965, and the new City Hall, which opened in September 1965, and Nathan Phillips Square now occupy the land. Heritage Toronto adds that Italians settling in the Ward lived alongside Black Canadians, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, and Chinese residents.
Chinese Torontonians under exclusion
The City of Toronto Archives cites a city directory of 1878 showing Sam Ching, among the first Chinese people working in Toronto, running a laundry at 9 Adelaide Street East. A Chinatown emerged on Elizabeth Street, north of Queen Street, in 1909. Toronto voters approved spending on a new civic square and city hall in 1947, and in 1955 the city expropriated the Chinatown’s shops and restaurants. From 1967 Chinese Canadians formed the Save Chinatown Committee against the demolition of remaining old buildings, and Council endorsed keeping old Chinatown in 1969. A Heritage Toronto plaque on the Elizabeth Street Chinatown was unveiled at City Hall in 2007.
A University of Toronto Libraries exhibit on the head tax reports that the federal Chinese Immigration Act imposed a $50 tax in 1885, raised to $500 in 1903, and that the 1923 amendment halted Chinese immigration except for a small class of individuals. The same exhibit gives 1948 as the year the act was repealed. Other accounts commonly give 1947, and this article could not settle the difference from an official text, so both years are shown. Accounts also differ on the tax level between 1885 and 1903, so that figure is omitted.
Italian settlement after the Second World War
Heritage Toronto describes three waves of Italian immigration: the first, from the 1880s to the 1910s, settled in the Ward; the second came between the world wars; and the third came after the Second World War, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, when roughly 20,000 Italians arrived in Canada each year from 1947 to 1971. The College Street district between Shaw, Dundas, and Bathurst Streets became the center of the community, and by the 1931 census 77 percent of Toronto’s Italians lived there. By the late 1960s many had begun moving north to Corso Italia on St. Clair Avenue West and on to Woodbridge, Vaughan, and other suburbs. The separate articles on Little Italy on College Street and Kensington Market cover those districts in more detail.
Where to research family and community history
The City of Toronto Archives publishes research pages by topic, including Black history and Chinese history. They point to city directories, council records, and photographs. Both are primary starting points before relying on any retelling.
Frequently asked questions
Is Toronto a majority immigrant city?
Not in the 2021 census. Statistics Canada gives 46.6 percent for the metropolitan area, which is close to half but below it.
How many Irish migrants came to Toronto in 1847?
Between 38,000 and nearly 40,000, depending on which plaque is read, in a city of about 20,000 people.
Where was Toronto’s first Chinatown?
On Elizabeth Street, north of Queen Street, from about 1909. It was expropriated in 1955 for the new City Hall, and a new Chinatown grew around Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street by 1967.
Did the 1793 act free enslaved people in Upper Canada?
No. It banned bringing enslaved people in from the United States and declared those who entered afterward not subject to slavery, but people were still bought and sold in Canada until the Slavery Abolition Act of 1834.
Related reading
- An overview of Toronto’s history
- Indigenous history of the Toronto area
- How Toronto neighborhoods grew
- Researching Toronto in newspapers and archives
- Little Italy and the Italian community
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Statistics Canada, Daily release on the 2021 Census, immigration, October 26, 2022
- City of Toronto Archives, “Chinese History in Toronto” (research by topic)
- City of Toronto Archives, “Black History in Toronto” (research by topic)
- Heritage Toronto, “Little Italy on College Street”
- The Ward Museum, “The Ward, Toronto” (Block by Block, 2017)
- Parks Canada, “Thornton and Lucie Blackburn National Historic Persons”
- Plaque transcriptions, Read the Plaque: Irish Immigrants and the Fever Sheds, 1847 and Toronto Irish Famine Memorial (secondary transcriptions of the plaque texts)
- University of Toronto Libraries exhibits: Celebrating Black Voices, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and Canadian Wrongs: The Chinese Head Tax
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 25). Immigration and Communities in Toronto’s History. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/the-multifaceted-immigration-history-of-toronto-from-early-settlers-to-global-metropolis
MLA: “Immigration and Communities in Toronto’s History.” History of Toronto, 25 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/the-multifaceted-immigration-history-of-toronto-from-early-settlers-to-global-metropolis. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Immigration and Communities in Toronto’s History.” Last modified October 25, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/the-multifaceted-immigration-history-of-toronto-from-early-settlers-to-global-metropolis.
The pages have no named author, so the site is given as the author. Add the date you read the page if your style asks for it.