In May, the business closure rate edged up by 0.1 percentage points to 4.8%, following a 0.1 percentage point decline in the previous month. The business opening rate remained steady at 4.8%, unchanged since February. In May, the business closure rate was 0.2 percentage points higher than its 2015-to-2019 historical average, while the opening rate was 0.1 percentage points higher than its historical average.
In May, the number of active businesses declined marginally by less than 0.1% (-141 businesses) as the number of closures was slightly higher than that of openings. In the same month, real gross domestic product edged down by 0.1%, while payroll employment increased by +0.1% and the total number of insolvencies (bankruptcies and proposals) in Canada rose by 2.3% compared with the previous month.
The increase in business closures in May was widespread across sectors and largely driven by four sectors. The construction (+462 business closures compared with April; 19.3% contribution to the overall increase in business closures) and professional, scientific and technical services (+328; 13.7% contribution) sectors led the increase, followed by the accommodation and food services (+310; 13.0% contribution) and health care and social assistance (+266; 11.1% contribution) sectors.
Although the overall business opening rate remained steady in May, the number of openings showed a mixed pattern across sectors. Most sectors experienced modest increases in openings, while a few saw notable declines. The increase was led by the other services (except public administration) (+97 business openings compared with April), administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (+71) and construction (+70) sectors. However, the increase in openings was offset by declines in three sectors: transportation and warehousing (-199 business openings compared with April), health care and social assistance (-152) and professional, scientific and technical services (-21).
Similarly, the number of active businesses showed a mixed pattern across sectors, with declines in some and increases in others. The decline in active businesses was primarily driven by the retail trade (-206 active businesses compared with April); transportation and warehousing (-190), and wholesale trade (-129) sectors. The increase in active businesses was led by the health care and social assistance (+161 active businesses compared with April) and accommodation and food services (+107) sectors, followed by the other services (except public administration) (+70), and administrative and support, waste management and remediation services (+67) sectors.
Chart 1: Monthly business openings and closures as a percentage of active businesses, business sector, January 2023 to May 2025, seasonally adjusted data
Description - Chart 1
Source: Table 33-10-0270-01.
Chart 2: Percent contribution of sectors to the decline in the number of active businesses, April to May 2025, seasonally adjusted data
Description - Chart 2
Source: Table 33-10-0270-01.
Note to readers
With each release, data for the preceding month are revised as additional information becomes available. This may also involve minor revisions to historical data due to seasonal adjustment. Users are encouraged to use the most up-to-date data available for each month.
Seasonal adjustment is applied separately to each sector to account for unique patterns, which can lead to discrepancies between business sector figures and the sum of sector-specific ones.
Percentages in Chart 2 represent the contribution of each sector to the business sector's overall variation. The percentage is negative when the direction of the sector's variation is different from that of the overall variation, and it is positive when sectoral and overall variation are in the same direction.
More precisely, a sector's contribution is negative if it shows a decrease in the number of businesses, while the total number of businesses has increased. Similarly, a sector's contribution is negative if it shows an increase in the number of businesses, while the total number of businesses has fallen.
For more information on the data presented in this release, see the Monthly Business Openings and Closures (5401) survey page.
Contact information
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