OTTAWA — Canadians are travelling to overseas countries in record numbers, according to Statistics Canada.

Canadian residents took 842,000 trips to countries other than the United States in April, up 2.5% and the highest level since record keeping began in 1972.

Overall, travel between Canada and other countries increased in both directions in April. Travel by Canadian residents abroad was up 1.1% and travel to Canada from other countries rose 1.8%.

Canadian residents took 4.5 million trips to the United States in April, up 0.8% from March. This was the first increase since November 2013, largely because of a 1.6% rise in same-day car trips and a 2.5% gain in overnight car trips to the United States. However, these increases were offset by a 3.7% decrease in overnight plane travel.

In the other direction, United States residents made 1.7 million trips to Canada, up 1.8% from March. Same-day car trips rose 2.1%. Overnight car (+1.6%) and plane travel (+2.9%) also increased.

Residents from overseas countries made 411,000 trips to Canada in April.

There were increases in trips from eight of the top 12 countries of origin for overseas visitors to Canada. The largest percentage increase was in travel from South Korea (+11.4%) followed by India (+11.1%). Hong Kong (-18.1%) and France (-5.4%) posted the largest declines in travel to Canada.