Key Small Business Statistics - July 2005

How many small business entrepreneurs are women?

There is no easy way to precisely determine the number of entrepreneurs in Canada, much less the number of women entrepreneurs. However, it is possible to estimate the number using available data on self-employment and business ownership.

Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey reports there were 839 000 self-employed women in Canada in 2004, accounting for about one third of all self-employed persons. (While not all of the self-employed would identify themselves as entrepreneurs, the number of self-employed women provides an upper limit for the number of female entrepreneurs.^{Footnote 8}) Over the past 10 years, the number of self-employed women has grown by 23%, compared with 20% growth in male self-employment.

Another way to count entrepreneurs is through business ownership. The report entitled Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) Financing in Canada, 2002^{Footnote 9} distinguishes four types of business ownership based on gender: majority female ownership, equal partnership between male and female owners, minority female ownership and no female ownership.

Based on the Survey on Financing of Small and Medium Enterprises, 2001, it is estimated that 47% of SMEs had some degree of female ownership in 2001. Of those, 39% were equal partnerships between male and female owners, 38% were majority owned by females and the remainder were minority owners in businesses majority owned by males. The degree of female ownership varied by industry, but it is clear that the percentage of female owned businesses lags behind the percentage of majority male-owned businesses in every industry (Figure 11). Nearly one-quarter of SMEs in professional services industries are majority female owned while only 3% of SMEs in primary industries are majority female owned.

Figure 11: Business Ownership Distribution by Sex and Industry, 2001

Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on Financing of Small and Medium Enterprises, 2001.

The survey found that SMEs majority owned by women were less likely than other SMEs to employ more than 20 employees and also started up more recently than firms that are majority owned by men. Women owners of SMEs also tended to have fewer years of experience in the industries in which they operated compared with their male counterparts.

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Footnote 8. Some entrepreneurs, especially if they are on the payroll of their own businesses, may not identify themselves as being self-employed; however, this number is likely to be smaller than the number of self-employed who are not entrepreneurs.

Footnote 9. Government of Canada, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Financing in Canada, 2002, available at http://www.sme-fdi.gc.ca. The report is based in part on Statistics Canada's Survey on Financing of Small and Medium Enterprises, 2000.