Canadian Small Business Statistics

Key Small Business Statistics is a semi-annual report from Industry Canada that covers a range of data and information on small business in Canada.  They recently released their July report (07 data) and the highlights are:

1.  There are roughly 2.3 million small (less than 100 employees) and mid-sized (less than 500 employees) businesses in Canada.  This does not include the self-employed. 

2.  Small firms employ about 5 million Canadians, which is 48% of the private workforce.  Medium sized firms employ 1.7 million, or about 16% of the private workforce.   

3.  There are about 2.6 million self-employed Canadians.  This is roughly 15% of the overall workforce.

Industry Canada also puts out a quarterly report containing updated data as well as research summaries and other information on the SME sector.