SME Research and Statistics
Latest report releases
- Biannual Survey of Suppliers of Business Financing — Data analysis, second half 2020
- Financing of women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in Canada
- Entrepreneurship in rural Canada: Necessity or opportunity driven?
- Canadian Start-ups: Growth and Scale-up Transitions
- Access to capital for Canadian growth-oriented, medium-sized firms
SME in Canada
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Definition
Small:
1-99 employees;
Medium:
100‑499 employees;
Large:
500 employees and more; -
Number of businesses with employees in 2019
Small:
1,200,571 (97.9%)
Medium:
22,905 (1.9%)
Large:
2,978 (0.2%)
Total:
1,226,454
Source: Statistics Canada, Business Register, December 2019 -
Number of private sector employees in 2019
Small:
8,459,593 (68.8%)
Medium:
2,428,356 (19.4%)
Large:
1,415,550 (11.5%)
Total:
12,303,499
Sources: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (LFS); and calculations by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada -
Debt financing requests by SMEs in 2017
Request rate:
25.6%
Approval rate:
86.6%
Source:Survey on Financing and Growth of SMEs, 2017 -
Contribution to gross domestic product (GDP)
Between 2011 and 2015, small businesses accounted for 40.6% of GDP, while medium-sized businesses accounted for 12.7%.
Source: KSBS, November 2019
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