Active enterprises in Canada, 2018

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Release date: November 10, 2020
Infographic: Active enterprises in Canada, 2018
Description: Active enterprises in Canada, 2018

Active enterprises in Canada, 2018

Active enterprises consist of all enterprises that had either revenue or employees at any time during the reference period.

In 2018, there were 1,138,170 active enterprises in Canada with one or more employees. Of those, 64.8% had four or fewer employees.


Table 1
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 1. The information is grouped by Province or Territory  (appearing as row headers), Percent (%) (appearing as column headers).
Province or Territory  Percent (%)
Newfoundland and Labrador 1.3
Prince Edward Island 0.5
Nova Scotia 2.4
New Brunswick 2.0
Quebec 20.7
Ontario 37.8
Manitoba 3.2
Saskatchewan 3.1
Alberta 13.4
British Columbia 15.4
Territories 0.3

The largest number of high-growth enterprises were in the construction sector.Note 1


Table 2
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 2. The information is grouped by Sector (appearing as row headers), Percent (%) (appearing as column headers).
Sector Percent (%)
Construction 15.4
Professional, scientific and technical services 10.8
Accommodation and food services 10.3

The professional, scientific and technical services sector contributed the most to enterprise births and deaths.


Table 3
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 3. The information is grouped by Sector (appearing as row headers), Births in 2018 (%) (appearing as column headers).
Sector Births in 2018 (%)
Professional, scientific and technical services 17.4
Construction 14.4
Health care and social assistance 9.0

Table 4
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 4. The information is grouped by Sector (appearing as row headers), Deaths in 2017 (%) (appearing as column headers).
Sector Deaths in 2017 (%)
Professional, scientific and technical services 16.8
Construction 15.1
Accommodation and food services 7.6

The professional, scientific and technical services sector also had the largest share of one- and two-year survivors.Note 2


Table 5
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 5. The information is grouped by Sector (appearing as row headers), One-year survivors (2017 to 2018) and Two-year survivors (2016 to 2018), calculated using Percent (%) units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Sector One-year survivors (2017 to 2018) Two-year survivors (2016 to 2018)
Percent (%) Percent (%)
Professional, scientific and technical services 17.1 16.2
Construction 15.1 14.8
Health care and social assistance 8.9 9.5

Sources: Statistics Canada, 2020, Entrepreneurship Indicators Database; OECD (2017), Entrepreneurship at a Glance 2017, OECD Publishing, Paris.

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