Fact File: Claim Canada ranks 8th in global homeless population is false

A list posted to social media claimed to show a supposed global ranking of countries with the largest homeless population, in which Canada ranked number eight.

The list actually shows data from countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, plus three non-member countries, and is not a global ranking. As all countries use different methods to record homeless statistics, it is difficult to compare or rank them.

THE CLAIM

“Canada ranks 8th in the world for highest homeless population,” reads an Instagram post with more than 7,000 likes.

The post includes a screenshot from a statistics account World of Statistics on the X platform, formerly Twitter, which ranked Canada at number eight on a list of countries with the highest homeless population. The post received around 230,000 views according to X’s metrics.

The Instagram post did not share the full screenshot of the X post, where it listed its source as Insider Monkey, a website that posts articles about finance and compiles lists ranking different countries using public data or its own methods, such as Reddit surveys.

The site said it compiled the ranking based on data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

THE FACTS

Canada is one of 38 OECD member countries, so the list hardly represents a global ranking.

World of Statistics has a history of using unreliable data according to other fact-checkers, resulting in false statistical claims about countries like Ukraine and Nigeria.

According to Insider Monkey, the website that first posted the ranking, it used the most recent data available on homelessness from the OECD countries’ estimation of the number of people experiencing homelessness “as of the latest year.”

The OECD’s 2024 report on homelessness includes data from all OECD member countries, minus Hungary, as well as Croatia, Cyprus and Romania.

It lists Canada’s homeless population as 40,713, representing about 0.11 per cent of the total population.

When ranked by the estimated number of homeless, Canada lands at 10th behind the United States, France, Germany, Australia, England, Czechia, New Zealand, Italy and the Slovak Republic. The Insider Monkey ranking did not include statistics from the United States or England.

If ranked by the percentage of homeless people compared with the total population, Canada ties for 22nd with Chile and Luxembourg.

The OECD report notes that it’s difficult to compare homeless estimates across different countries, because they do not record their population data the same way, nor do they necessarily agree on the definition of homelessness.

Canada’s homelessness data from the report used in the ranking comes from its 2020-2022 homeless count. The count includes data from a one-night count of people experiencing homelessness in certain communities, as well as survey responses.

Canada defines homelessness as “the situation of an individual or family who does not have a permanent address or residence; the living situation of an individual or family who does not have stable, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate prospect, means and ability of acquiring it.”

Canada has different definitions for chronic or Indigenous homelessness.

The OECD notes at least two million people living in its member countries experienced homelessness in 2024 “or the latest year,” which is likely underestimated due to the difficulty of measuring the homeless population accurately.

According to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, or UN-Habitat, 78 countries collect official data on homelessness, “but millions of people remain invisible, living in unsafe or temporary conditions.”

Canada’s latest homelessness count, from 2024, noted that the population of people experiencing homelessness on a given night “has almost doubled” over the past six years.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2025.

Marissa Birnie, The Canadian Press