Question Period Note: 2015 – 2023 BUSINESS GROWTH STATISTICS

Did the pandemic shutter over 120,000 businesses?

• Since 2015, the number of active businesses has grown by seven percent, from 870,100 to 930,600.
• Businesses start up and close depending on market conditions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of active businesses dropped significantly.
• As the effects of the pandemic subsided and economic conditions improved, the number of active businesses recovered to pre-pandemic levels and continued to grow.

• On February 2, 2024, Key Small Business Statistics 2023 was published on the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) website. The report notes that, in 2020, 120,344 small businesses closed and 91,548 small businesses opened. It also notes that, between 2016 and 2020, on average, 100,475 small businesses started up and 96,548 businesses closed. These statistics are based on Statistics Canada’s Business Register, and are available with a lag.
• From January 2015 to October 2023, the number of active businesses in Canada increased from 870,100 to 930,600, an increase of roughly seven percent, according to the Monthly Estimates of Business Openings and Closures data series from Statistics Canada.

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