Foreign control in the Canadian economy, 2024
Released: 2026-06-24
The share of assets owned by foreign-controlled enterprises in the Canadian economy has steadily declined since 2010 and continued in 2024, with the foreign-controlled share of assets decreasing by 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier. The decline was mostly due to Canadian-controlled enterprise assets growing at a faster pace than those of foreign-controlled enterprises.
Today, Statistics Canada is releasing an annual report, under the Corporations Returns Act, which provides information on the level of foreign control in the Canadian economy for 2024.
Consult the "Foreign control in the Canadian economy: Visualization tool" for a comprehensive overview of the annual changes in the foreign control of the Canadian corporate economy.
The share of assets in Canada owned by foreign-controlled enterprises decreases
Combined, foreign- and Canadian-controlled enterprises operating in Canada held $18.8 trillion in assets in 2024, a 5.0% increase from 2023.
Canadian-controlled assets were valued at $16.2 trillion in 2024, representing 86.1% of total corporate assets in the Canadian economy. Foreign-controlled assets were valued at $2.6 trillion, accounting for the remaining 13.9% of assets. The foreign-controlled share of assets decreased by 7.3 percentage points from 2010 to 2024.
Canadian-controlled enterprises recorded a higher year-over-year increase in asset value growth (+5.6%) from 2023 to 2024 compared with foreign-controlled enterprises (+1.5%).
The United States continues to own the largest share of foreign-controlled assets in Canada
Data from the Corporations Returns Act program show that enterprises in Canada were controlled by entities from 93 countries in 2024. However, eight countries accounted for 86.3% of these foreign-owned assets.
United States-controlled enterprises maintained the largest overall share of foreign-controlled assets in Canada (55.9%) in 2024, followed by Japan (8.6%) and the United Kingdom (6.6%).
By macro-region, the majority share of assets under foreign control in 2024 belonged to enterprises from the Americas (57.5%), followed by enterprises from Europe (23.7%) and Asia (17.2%).
Assets controlled by enterprises from the Americas grew 6.9% in 2024, at a faster pace than in 2023 (+3.9%). This led to a 2.9 percentage point increase in their share of foreign-controlled assets.
Conversely, European-controlled enterprises' share of assets in the Canadian economy declined by 4.0 percentage points in 2024 from the previous year, having recorded a 13.1% year-over-year decline in asset value in 2024. This decline in the share of assets was driven by a 12.8 percentage-point reduction in the share of foreign-controlled assets in the financial sector, along with a modest increase (+0.2 percentage points) in the share of foreign-controlled assets in the non-financial sector.
The asset value of Asian-controlled enterprises grew 9.2% in 2024 (+1.2 percentage-point change in share of foreign-controlled assets).
Oceania-controlled assets held a steady share (1.5%) in 2024, and African-controlled enterprises made up the smallest share of foreign-controlled enterprises (0.1%).
The industries in the non-financial sector that presented the largest shares of foreign control in 2024, as measured by assets, were wholesale trade (48.9%), manufacturing (43.5%), oil and gas extraction (32.3%) and mining and quarrying (31.8%).
Among all industries in the financial sector in 2024, non-depository credit intermediation continued to have the highest level of foreign control at 48.3%, up from 44.0% in 2023.
Chart 1
Share of assets under foreign control, all industries, 2015 to 2024
Infographic 1
Assets under foreign control by country, all industries, 2024
Infographic 2
Assets under foreign control, by macro-region, all industries, 2024
Note to readers
Under the authority of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Statistics Canada administers the Corporations Returns Act, which requires the collection of financial and ownership information on corporations conducting business in Canada. This information is used to evaluate the extent of non-resident control of the Canadian corporate economy.
The Corporations Returns Act requires that an annual report be submitted to Parliament summarizing the extent of foreign control in Canada.
The financial information on foreign control in the Canadian economy is derived from administrative data received from the Canada Revenue Agency. This information is based on financial statements filed with corporate annual income tax returns. Therefore, the reference period has a lag of two years.
These statistics are compiled from enterprise-level data. An enterprise can be a single corporation or a family of corporations under common ownership or control, for which consolidated financial statements are produced.
This report focuses mainly on ownership of assets as a basis for measuring foreign control because assets provide a longer-term perspective. They are a stock item, reflecting economic decisions and market conditions that evolve more slowly over time. Statistics Canada also tracks revenues and profits under foreign control for the same periods.
Correction
On June 24, 2026, the text box describing foreign ownership shares by sector was removed due to the release of two data points that should have been suppressed under internal dominance rules. No data in the released tables are affected.
Products
The report "Corporations Returns Act, 2024" ( 61-220-X ), is now available.
The 2025 issue of "Inter-corporate Ownership" (61-517-X) is available.
The data visualization product "Foreign control in the Canadian economy: Visualization tool" is now available.
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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