Fast Facts Friday: March 1, 2024

Catch up on the latest facts and read more via the links below in case you missed them this week!

1. Sales at food services and drinking places rose 1.1% to $8.0 billion in December 2023 (seasonally adjusted). – Read more
2. The business opening rate dropped from 4.5% in October to 4.1% in November. The business closure rate also fell, down 0.2 percentage points to 4.5%. – Read more
3. Canada welcomed 10.5 million travellers from the United States and overseas in the third quarter, representing 83.9% of the number of trips made in the same quarter of 2019. – Read more
4. During the third quarter, Canadian residents took 99.7 million trips, up 3.0 million from the same quarter of 2022 (96.7 million). – Read more
5. Total capital expenditures by businesses and governments on non-residential tangible capital assets are expected to increase by 4.5% to $353.9 billion in 2024. – Read more
6. The number of families with children younger than 6 years has fluctuated over the last three decades, peaking in 1995 at 1.64 million, and reaching a low in 2006 at 1.42 million. Since 2010, the number has increased and stabilized, hovering from 1.50 million to 1.57 million. – Read more
7. The number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employer increased by 31,600 (+0.2%) in December 2023. – Read more
8. Real gross domestic product (GDP) edged up 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2023, following a 0.1% decline in the third quarter. – Read more
9. Canada's current account balance (on a seasonally adjusted basis) recorded a $1.6 billion deficit in the fourth quarter of 2023, narrowing $3.1 billion from the previous quarter. – Read more
10. Immigrant women accounted for nearly half (44.3%) of women inventors in 2019, a 10.5 percentage-point increase from 2005. – Read more