Food services and drinking places, March 2023
Released: 2023-05-31
$7.7 billion
March 2023
-2.2% 
(monthly change)
$88.1 million
March 2023
-0.8%
(monthly change)
$35.8 million
March 2023
-2.4%
(monthly change)
$182.0 million
March 2023
-1.8%
(monthly change)
$126.2 million
March 2023
-2.7%
(monthly change)
$1,446.0 million
March 2023
-3.8%
(monthly change)
$3,026.1 million
March 2023
-1.3%
(monthly change)
$217.7 million
March 2023
-1.6%
(monthly change)
$200.5 million
March 2023
-2.0%
(monthly change)
$970.9 million
March 2023
-2.9%
(monthly change)
$1,362.3 million
March 2023
-1.8%
(monthly change)
$7.7E million
March 2023
-5.8%
(monthly change)
F
March 2023
F
(monthly change)
F
March 2023
F
(monthly change)
On a seasonally adjusted basis, sales in the Food Service and Drinking Places subsector decreased by 2.2% to $7.7 billion in March. Limited-service restaurants (-4.4%) and drinking places (-8.5%) were responsible for the decrease. Special food services (+1.2%) saw an increase and sales at full-service restaurants were unchanged (+0.0%). All the provinces saw decreases, with the largest being in Quebec (-3.8%), Ontario (-1.3%), Alberta (-2.9%) and British Columbia (-1.8%).
Further information is available in the "Food Services and Drinking Places Sales" dashboard, where users can consult data on sales in food services and drinking places for Canada and by province and territory. This application allows users to compare provincial and territorial data through interactive maps and charts.
Chart 1
Sales in food services and drinking places
Year-over-year sales in the food services and drinking places subsector up
The figures in this section are based on unadjusted (that is, not seasonally adjusted) estimates.
A year after restrictions due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 were relaxed across the country, unadjusted sales for March 2023 were up 14.5% compared with March 2022.
Prices for food purchased from restaurants were up 7.2% in March 2023 compared with March 2022 and prices for alcoholic beverages served in licensed establishments increased 4.6% in the same period.
Note to readers
Upcoming changes, stay tuned!
As Canada's national statistical agency, we are committed to continue to modernize the way we connect with Canadians and communicate data in an innovative and flexible manner.
That's why next month, we will pilot the use of new tools to share data stories in different formats, and at different times throughout the day.
Keep an eye out! Our next release on June 23, 2023, will be published at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time as an infographic in StatsCAN Plus—a Statistics Canada official release vehicle. A data availability announcement and the data tables will still be available at 8:30 a.m. ET in The Daily.
Unless otherwise noted, all data in this release are seasonally adjusted and expressed in current dollars. Seasonally adjusted data are data that have been modified to eliminate the effect of seasonal and calendar influences to allow for more meaningful comparisons of economic conditions from period to period. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
Trend-cycle data are included in selected charts to complement the seasonally adjusted series. These data represent a smoothed version of the seasonally adjusted time series and provide information on longer-term movements, including changes in direction underlying the series. For information on trend-cycle data, see the StatCan Blog and Trend-cycle estimates – Frequently asked questions.
Data for the current reference month are preliminary. Usually, unadjusted data are revised for the previous two months, and seasonally adjusted data are revised for the previous three months. Both seasonally adjusted data and trend-cycle estimates are subject to revision as additional observations become available. These revisions could be large and could even lead to a reversal of movement, especially for reference months near the end of the series or during periods of economic disruption.
With the release of the March 2023 preliminary estimates, unadjusted monthly data were revised back to January 2020 in table 21-10-0019-01. Factors influencing revisions include late receipt of respondent information, corrections to the information provided, the replacement of imputed data with reported data (once available), introducing new births, utilizing the most recent administrative data, the re-classification of companies within, into and out of the food services and drinking places subsector, and updates to seasonal factors.
Find these data and more statistics on the Business and consumer services and culture statistics portal.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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