How much money remittances Filipinos in Canada send to the Philippines

By Carlito Pablo

Filipinos in Canada are helping to keep their native country economically afloat with money remittances.

Latest numbers show that cash remittances to the Philippines from overseas Filipinos, including those in Canada, reached US $29.2 billion in the first 10 months of 2025.

Money transfers from Canada accounted for 3.5 percent of remittances from January to October, or more than $1 billion.

Data released by the Philippine central bank on December 14, 2025 show that the U.S. remains the top source of cash remittances (40.3 percent), followed by Singapore (7.2 percent) and Saudi Arabia (6.4 percent).

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Japan accounted for 4.9 percent; United Kingdom, 4.7 percent; United Arab Emirates, 4.5 percent; Canada, 3.5 percent; Qatar, 2.9 percent; Taiwan, 2.8 percent; Republic of Korea, 2.5 percent; and others, 20.4 percent.

The BusinessMirror newspaper noted that cash remittances grew by 3.2 percent to $29.2 billion as of the end of October 2025 from $28.304 billion in the same period of January to October last year.

The Manila-based paper quoted John Paolo R. Rivera, senior research fellow at the state-run Philippine Institute for Development Studies, saying that the Philippine peso’s depreciation motivates Filipinos abroad to send more money back home to take advantage of the greater peso equivalent.

BusinessMirror also cited Jeremaiah M. Opiniano, executive director of the Institute for Migration and Development Issues, who said that “cash remittances and overseas work helped stem the tide from a dismal third-quarter economic performance” by the Philippines.

“We have always been like this: making Filipinos abroad the ‘steady’ providers of needed homeland development resources,” Opiniano also said.

Rivera shared the same opinion, saying, remittance behavior has been seasonal, but remittances have been reliable in keeping the Philippine economy afloat.

Both Opiniano and Ravelas told BusinessMirror that cash remittances are expected to rise in November and December as the peso weakened to its all-time low of P59.22 to US $1 in December 9.

The paper noted that the Philippine central bank expects total cash remittances for the whole of 2025 to reach $35.5 billion.

A study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) noted that the Asia-Pacific region remains the largest recipient of international remittances worldwide.

In 2023, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 38 percent of global remittance inflows, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean.

“In absolute terms, India, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are the largest recipients, which reflects the large numbers of emigrants from these countries 

relative to the population,” stated the report titled “Beyond Borders: How Remittances Are Shaping Asia-Pacific Economies”.

Released in January 2025, the UNDP report noted that dependency by Asia-Pacific households on international remittances is “substantial”.

“Remittances provide critical financial support, improving millions of families’ living standards, healthcare, and education,” according to the paper.

The report cited a 2020 study indicating that that 8.4 percent of households in the Philippines were receiving international remittances.

In 2020, the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada published a paper by Phebe Ferrer about money remittances.

Ferrer cited World Bank data indicating that remittances from Filipinos abroad accounted for 10 percent of the GDP of the Philippines in 2019.

Ferrer also noted the role of Canada in global money remittances.

“As one of the world’s major migration hubs, Canada plays an important role in the global exchange of remittances. In 2017, the World Bank estimated that Canadian residents sent C$32B in remittances abroad, making Canada the sixth largest source of remittances. The top recipients of Canada’s remittances are in the Asia Pacific, particularly China, India, and the Philippines.”