New Canadians: technology ownership and use

With a country that is more diverse than ever before, understanding how ethnicity impacts technology use and media consumption is a key component of any media plan. According to the 2016 Census, over one-fifth (21.9%) of Canada's total population were foreign-born and this number has been steadily increasing since the 1950s. This continued growth in ethnocultural diversity in Canada combined with increasing consumer fragmentation poses an ongoing challenge for brands as they struggle to personalize communication and stand out from competitors.

MTM Newcomers survey overview

MTM’s Newcomer survey, with a sample of over 4,000, includes Canadian citizens, permanent residents, international students, temporary foreign workers, refugee claimants, and other non-permanent residents, and provides much-needed data on the media behaviours and leisure and settlement activities of people who have arrived in Canada in the past 5 years.

MTM Newcomers survey 2022 highlights

• Virtually all Newcomers in the survey owned a cell phone with 60% of them purchasing it when they arrived in Canada.
• Newcomers are 42% less likely to own a TV set than Canadian-born individuals yet 88% of them subscribe to at least one SVOD service such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
• Close to 1 in 10 are subscribing to a foreign language SVOD service such as Hotstar, iQiyi and Shahid
• Three-quarters of Newcomers consume news content each month with social media being by far the most popular source.
• Newcomers are much more likely to consume a variety of audio content online rather than on traditional platforms.
• Newcomers are 3 times as likely as Canadian-born respondents to use WhatsApp, They are also more likely to be using Snapchat and TikTok.

About MTM

The Media Technology Monitor (MTM©) is Canada’s premier research product in the area of technology ownership and use. Based on 12,000 telephone interviews annually (including a cellphone-only sample), the MTM has spoken with over 200,000 Canadians (equally split between Anglophones and Francophones) over the past decade, making it the most accurate and comprehensive media technology tracking survey of its kind.